Development of a short-form of childcare happiness scale

Abstract

Purpose
The aims of this study were to (1) develop a short-form of the multidimensional CHS (Child-care Happiness Scale), which was developed by Shimizu, Sekimizu, Endo et al. (2007), and (2) examine its reliability in order to increase general applicability.
Methods
Mothers with infants younger than 6 years of age were asked to evaluate 41 items in the CHS that involved various situations which give rise to a feeling of happiness during child-care using a 5-point scale. We also used the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) and Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), which measure psychological health, in order to confirm the validity of the short-form CHS (SF-CHS).
Results
There were a total of 672 valid respondents. A factor analysis was performed on 41 items of the CHS, and then 16 items were selected for the SF-CHS, which consists of 3 factors: "joys of child-care," "connection with the child," and "husband's support." Items for the 3 factors had sufficiently high Cronbach's α coefficients (0.81-0.86), which represent their internal consistency. There was a significant positive correlation between the SF-CHS and SHS. In contrast, there was a significant negative correlation with BDI. There was a decreasing trend for "joys of child-care" and "connection with child" with increasing mother's age. Furthermore, "husband's support" was higher for mothers whose youngest child was less than 1 year old than for those whose youngest child was 4 years or older, and lowest for mothers with only one child.
Conclusions
Differences between the SF-CHS and original CHS, their practicality, and future issues were discussed. Our findings suggest an association between SF-CHS and psychological health. The conciseness of the SF-CHS allows immediate feedback to each mother of her child-care happiness profile. In the future, SF-CHS can be expected to become a useful resource for mothers to reflect on their feelings on child-care.