An Evaluation of the Bardis Familism Scale in India

The majorpurpose of the study is to evaluate the Bardis Familism Scale through the use offactor analysis in order to determine whether all the items in the scale are unidimensional or multidimensional. Subsequent to the development of the scale, some suggested that it measures not just one but as many as five dimensions of familism. Data for the study were collected in 1975 from a sample of 586 college students from India. The results indicate that the scale consists of two separate subscales which are labeled Nuclear Familism and Extended Familism. Out of the 16 items, 10 measure the extendedfamily dimension and the remaining six measure the nuclearfamily dimension. These two subscales coincide exactly with Bardis' revised subscales. The analysis suggests that the scale is a strong indicator of the two dimensions offamilism. It is argued that the scale be used crossculturally to examine its validity before any revision is undertaken.