Psychometric validity of the Perceived Home Management Hassles Scale

Home management of the home and family, including household chores, childrearing, caregiving and shopping, can be a burden, especially when the person or a family member is ill or affected by psychological or social issues. We developed a subjective indicator of this burden, the self-report, five-item, five-point Likert scale "Perceived Home Management Hassles Scale". Here, we evaluated the psychometric validity of the scale, using an online questionnaire survey among members of the Japanese Association for Research in Family Nursing. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the unidimensional structure (CFI = 0.999, RMSEA = 0.028, SRMR = 0.007). Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's Omega was 0.92 and 0.93, respectively. Mean score was higher among participants with childrearing responsibilities than in those without (n = 198, mean = 10.3, SD = 5.24, vs. n = 312, mean = 6.4, SD = 4.59; p < 0.001), and among those with caregiving responsibilities than in those without (n = 81, mean = 9.6, SD = 5.11, vs. n = 829, mean = 7.6, SD = 5.21; p = 0.002). Score was independently associated with Kessler-6 score (B = 0.33, β = 0.331, p < 0.001) and mediated the negative effects of childrearing/caregiving. The Perceived Home Management Hassles Scale demonstrated sufficient structural validity, internal consistency, and construct validity, including known-groups and convergent validity. Test-retest reliability and generalizability to general populations awaits further research.