DEVELOPMENT OF A TOOL TO MEASURE FAMILY SOCIAL CAPITAL

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The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate an instrument to measure social capital in families of a child with chronic illness. Despite considerable literature demonstrating health-related benefits of community supports such as respite, few studies have explored the processes by which these families manage resources as a family system. This study will focus on respite use as a context for understanding social capital, defined as the affective, behavioral, and cognitive features of the family's social networks that facilitate cooperation for mutual benefit. To date, research on social capital has been conducted in several other disciplines, however this is one of the first studies in nursing to address social capital and its potential to explain interactions involving families and community resources for health. The development of a reliable, valid tool to assess social capital is the foundation for a program of research that will maximize the ability of nurses, communities and families to interact for optimal health. The specific aims of this study are to: 1) Identify and sample the content domain for the indicators of social capital and generate items for the Family Social Capital Survey; 2) Determine the content and face validity of the FSCS; and 3) Psychometrically evaluate the FSCS for construct validity, internal consistency reliability, and test-retest reliability.