INDIGENOUS DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF SOCIAL STRESSORS SCALE FOR CAREGIVERS OF INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED CHILDREN

Abstract

Caregivers of children with intellectual disability (ID) in Pakistan encounter social stressors (discrimination, blame, criticism, and financial strain) that existing Western stress measures do not adequately capture. The present study developed and validated an indigenous, Urdu-language Social Stressors Scale (SSS) for caregivers of children with ID. Item generation drew on semi-structured interviews with six mothers, yielding a 56-item pool. Eight subject experts established content validity (I-CVI range = .75 to 1.00; S-CVI = .80), and a pilot study (N = 50) refined the pool to 42 items. Exploratory factor analysis (N = 250; KMO = .805; Bartlett’s χ²(780) = 5877.71, p < .001) retained 39 items loading on five factors (social discrimination, financial/family stressors, social blaming, social criticism, and social avoidance), explaining 53.44 % of the variance. Confirmatory factor analysis on an independent sample (N = 250) supported a respecified two-factor, 19-item model comprising social discrimination and financial/family stressors, χ²(146) = 593.6, p < .001, RMSEA = .106, GFI = CFI = TLI ≈ .80. Reliability was strong (α = .87 for the total scale; α = .85 for each subscale). Convergent validity was supported by significant positive correlations among subscale and total scores (r = .38 to .61, p < .01); divergent validity was supported by a non-significant correlation with generalized self-efficacy (r = -.12, p > .05). The SSS is a reliable, culturally grounded screening tool for caregiver social stress, although model fit indicates that further refinement is warranted before wide-scale use.