Innovations in Child and Family Policy by Emily M. Douglas

Author:Emily M. Douglas [ Douglas, Emily M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7391-3790-1
Publisher: Lexington Books

Key Independent and Moderator/Mediator Variables

The key independent variable in this study is caregiver’s age at the wave 2 interview. Caregiver age was examined both as a continuous and an ordinal variable [< forty years (younger), forty to fifty-nine years (middle age), and sixty+ years (older)] to facilitate interpretation. Potential mediators or moderators considered were emotional and instrumental social support. Emotional and instrumental support scales were constructed from caregiver ratings of the social support they received from family members, extended family members and fictive kin,15 and church/faith-based members. The emotional support scale included six items of caregiver ratings of whether family members, extended family members, and fictive kin provide comfort when upset and talk with the caregiver about feelings. The mean emotional support scale score was 4.0, with a theoretical range = 0–6 and the standard deviation was 1.7. The instrumental support scale is a fifteen-item index constructed from ratings of whether family members, extended family members, and fictive kin provided child care, transportation, lent money, and helped with shopping or when someone is ill. The mean scale score was 8.4, the theoretical range = 0–15, and the standard deviation was 4.4. Internal consistency of the scales was determined using Cronbach’s Alpha. An alpha of .7–.8 is considered acceptable.16 Cronbach’s Alphas of .70 and .90, respectively, indicate that the emotional support scale has adequate internal consistency reliability and the instrumental support scale has excellent internal consistency reliability.

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