“All I can do for my child” – development of the Chinese parental sacrifice for child’s education scale

Abstract

This paper describes a study in which an assessment tool of parental sacrifice for child’s education was developed. Based on focus group interviews of parents and adolescents, five dimensions of parental sacrifice on child’s education were identified, including “striving of financial resources”, “time spent on child education”, “restructuring of daily routine”, “sacrifice of lifestyle and aspiration”, and “shielding of worries”. Based on the literature on family capital theory, family investment, and parental involvement as well as the present findings, the Chinese Parental Sacrifice for Child’s Education Scale was developed. To assess the content validity of the measure, a panel of experts was invited to determine the relevance, clarity, and representativeness of the developed items and the views of the experts were used to further modify the scale. This study is a pioneer attempt to assess parental sacrifice for child’s education in the Chinese and international contexts.