Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the family hardiness Index among patients with cancer

Objective To exmain reliability and validity of the Chinese version of Family Hardiness Index(FHI) among patients with cancer. Methods A convinent sample of 344 patients with cancer was investigated with a self-designed questionnaire about personal information, the Herth Hope Index (HHI) and the Chinese version of FHI. Item analysis was conducted on each item of the Chinese version of FHI; The construct validity of the scale were evaluated by explorotory factor analysis, the reliability of the scale was also evaluated by calculating the Cronbach α coefficient, the split-half reliability and the retest reliability. Results The Chinese version of FHI consisted of 20 items. Five factors were extracted by factor analysis which explained 57.900% of the total variance. The score of the Chinese version of FHI was significantly correlated to the total score of HHI (r=0.716, p<0.01) .The Cronbach α coefficient of the Chinese version of FHI was 0.806, and the test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.790 and The split-half reliability was 0.793. Conclusion The Chinese version of FHI demonstrates good reliability and validity during initial testing among patients with cancer. Key words: Patients with neoplasms; Family hardiness; Reliability; Validity