Japanese Version of the Parent Health Locus of Control Scales: Validity and Reliability

Abstract

The Parent Health Locus of Control (PHLOC) Scales measure parents' beliefs about the factors that affect their children's health. The aim of our study was to develop a Japanese version of the Parent Health Locus of Control (JPHLOC) Scales and to verify its validity and reliability. The JPHLOC scales consist of six scales: Professional Influence, Parental Influence, Child Influence, Media Influence, Fate Influence, and God, Buddha, and the Spirits Influence. Our questionnaire was administered to 231 principal caregivers from Japan whose children were under 6 years of age. The items, related to the "God, Buddha, and the Spirits Influence" scale, showed a floor effect. The exploratory factor analysis indicated that JPHLOC' six factors functioned similarly to the PHLOC' factors. The Fate Influence and Child Influence factor structures in JPHLOC scales were different from the corresponding factor structures in the original PHLOC scales in the functioning of only one item. There were statistically significant correlations between JPHLOC scales and Japanese version of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF), which add evidence to the criterion-related validity of JPHLOC scales. Furthermore, applying the known-groups method, our study showed that there was a significant difference across the JPHLOC scale scores, owning to differences in the children's and caregivers' demographics, which provides an evidence for construct validity. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the six scales were estimated between 0.73 and 0.93. In a test-retest study, the interclass correlation coefficients for the six scales were ranged between 0.80 and 0.90. The results suggested that the JPHLOC scales have sufficient reliability and validity. The JPHLOC scales are applicable to the caregivers of healthy children. We confirm that the PHLOC scales are also applicable to Japanese caregivers.