Attitudes toward Working Single Parents: Initial Development of a Measure

Abstract

Three studies describe the development and refinement of a measure designed to assess Attitudes TowardWorking Single Parents (AWSP). Study 1 consisted of content validation of items written to assess respondent attitudes regarding the effect of single parenthood on two dimensions viewed as most central to the life experiences of single parents: work and family. Study 2 involved exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis of the scores on the target measure. Finally, in Study 3, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to evaluate scale dimensionality, and discriminant, convergent, and subgroup validity coefficients were examined. The final scale may prove useful in guiding future research aimed at understanding the unique challenges faced byworking single parents.