ObjectiveCaregiver contribution (CC) is important for the self-care behaviors of chronic disease individuals, as it could enhance patient outcomes. Therefore, it is necessary to assess this CC by using a good validity and reliability instrument. The Caregiver Contribution to Self-Care Chronic Illness Inventory (CC-SC-CII) was designed to assess CC to self-care behaviors of patients with chronic illness in Italy. However, it was unclear whether this tool had sound psychometrics properties in the context of Chinese culture. Therefore, we performed the cross-cultural adaption of the CC-SC-CII and we tested its psychometric properties among Chinese caregivers of patients with chronic disease.DesignA cross-sectional observational design.SettingsParticipants were recruited from communities and institutions in Pingdingshan, Henan Province, China.Participants301 caregivers of care recipients with chronic disease completed the Chinese version of the CC-SC-CII (C-CC-SC-CII).Primary and secondary outcome measuresThe content validity index of items (I-CVI), the scale content validity index-average (S-CVI/Ave), exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), internal consistency and item analysis were tested.ResultsThe range of I-CVI was between 0.833 and 1.00, and the score of S-CVI was 0.991. In CFA, the C-CC to self-care monitoring scale had satisfactory fit indices. However, the C-CC to self-care maintenance and management scales had unsupported fit indices. The reliability coefficients of C-CC-SC-CII were 0.792, 0.880 and 0.870 for its three scales. Item-total correlations were all over 0.590. Test–retest reliability showed that the range of intraclass correlation coefficients was from 0.728 to 0.783.ConclusionThe C-CC-SC-CII has sound psychometrics characteristics and is a culturally appropriate and reliable instrument for assessing CC to the self-care behaviours of patients with chronic disease in China.