Development and validation of the Filipino parentification scale for college students

Despite the availability of instruments to assess parentification or role reversal between a child and a parent within the family, there has been limited research on developing and validating these tools for Asian samples. This study aims to create and refine culturally valid measures of parentification for Filipino emerging adults, specifically college students. The study includes 2,419 non-overlapping college students from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the three major islands of the Philippines. Through the scale development method, the proposed Filipino Parentification for College Students (FPScs) identified four domains using exploratory factor analysis: Sibling-focused Parentification, Perceived Injustice of Parentification, Willingness to Contribute to Familial Obligation, and Perceived Positive Impact of Parentification. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated acceptable model fit indices for the four FPScs subscales: RMSEA (0.056), SRMR (0.051), GFI (0.93), CFI (0.94), and TLI (0.93). Additionally, the four subscales of the FPScs have demonstrated satisfactory levels of construct validity and reliability. Finally, this newly developed instrument will enable researchers, academics, and practitioners, particularly university counselors, to better assess the family system construct of parentification using an ecologically appropriate school-based instrument, especially relevant for college students facing mental and social health challenges.