The Measurement of Expected Filial Piety among Elderly Arabs Living in Israel

Purpose:  Like many minorities from very traditional family structures, Arab-Israelis elderly are influenced by their expectations of care and assistance from family members, particularly their sons and daughters.  These expectations of family members are called, "expected filial Piety."  Very few scales are available to measure this important concept for traditional populations.  This study examines the reliability of one of the few existing scales that is available for the measurement of expected filial piety.  

Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled Arab-Israeli elderly, ages 65 and above (n=157).   In this study, expected filial piety, using Wang's Expected Filial Piety Scale, was only one of the measurements used in a larger study.  This scale had two components, positive and negative expected filial piety.  The scale was administered through an interviewer-participant questionnaire.  Cronbach alpha and factor analyses were used to determine reliability of the two scale components for this population.

Results: Reliability of both positive and negative scale components was poor for the Arab-Israeli population with Cronbach alphas of 0.592 and 0.505, respectively.  Factor analysis revealed the scale contained three components.  When three questions were removed, there was high reliability for the positive scale with a Cronbach alpha=0.889.  The negative scale items were not found to be reliable. 

Conclusion:   If beliefs of expected filial piety change in traditional populations, additional services, which were never needed before, may need to be established.   Therefore, measurement of expected filial piety in traditional populations is crucial.  Existing scales may need to be altered to be reliable to fit different traditional populations. Israeli policymakers will need to examine expected filial piety within Arab-Israeli town to develop an understanding on how to progressively integrate newer health services.  Using this scale will help policymakers, researchers and others interested in elderly traditional, minority populations to make these transitions in a smoother way.