Development and Validation of the Family Involvement in Graduate School (FIGS) Measure

Abstract

This study involved development and validation of the Family Involvement in Graduate School measure, the first instrument to measure involvement of family in graduate students’ educational process. The measure was originally designed with six subscales. It was developed based on Hoover-Dempsey et al.’s model of parent involvement. Feedback on the measure was given by expert reviewers to refine the measure. The measure was validated with exploratory factor analysis of a sample of 150 family members of graduate students. Data was collected from family members of (a) a program for underprivileged graduate students and (b) graduate students enrolled in two large Western universities. A five-factor solution was supported by the Exploratory Factor Analysis, which was shown to be a good fit with SRMR fit statistics. Future research should validate the measure in other geographic locations and with a more diverse sample.