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Construct validity of the 17-item Benefit Finding Scale in Chinese cancer patients and their family caregivers: a cross-sectional study

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Abstract

Purpose

With increasing interest in, and growing recognition of, the importance of evaluating benefit finding (BF) in cancer practice, the construct validity of a majority of the instruments that claim to assess BF, however, requires further validation. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the construct validity of the 17-item Benefit Finding Scale (BFS) in Chinese cancer patient-caregiver dyads and to evaluate the association between the BFS patients and the BFS caregivers.

Methods

There were 772 dyads of patients with cancer and their family caregivers who completed a survey assessing their demographic information and BF from November 2014 to December 2015. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was applied to evaluate the construct validity of the 17-item BFS.

Results

Dimensionality analysis confirmed a three-dimensional structure validity. The extracted three factors were personal growth, improved relationships, and acceptance. The overall and three subscales of BFS in both cancer patients and family caregivers had good internal consistency, with all of the Cronbach’s α ≥0.819. Scores of the three subscales and overall scale between cancer patients and family caregivers were correlated to one another (r = 0.224–0.437, P < 0.001).

Conclusions

This study provides the three-factor construct validity of the 17-item BFS when applied in the sample of Chinese patients with cancer and their family caregivers. The mutual impact of benefit finding between Chinese patients with cancer and their family caregivers highlights the importance that healthcare professionals need paying special attention to the BF on the dyadic level when supporting patients with cancer.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from the related hospitals and all the participants for their sharing of their experience in this study. The authors are also grateful to the reviewer for his/her very helpful comments on a previous version of this manuscript.

Author contributions

Qiuping Li: study conception/design; data collection/analysis; drafting of manuscript. Yi Lin, Huiya Zhou, and Liping Yang: data collection/analysis; drafting of manuscript. Yinghua Xu: data collection/analysis; drafting of manuscript; critical revisions of the manuscript. Yongyong Xu: supervision and critical revisions for important intellectual content.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wuxi Medical School, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China

    Qiuping Li & Yi Lin

  2. Wuxi People’s Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China

    Yinghua Xu & Huiya Zhou

  3. Xijing Hospital, Xiʼan, Shaanxi Province, China

    Liping Yang

  4. Department of Health Statistics, Fourth Military Medical University, Xiʼan, Shaanxi Province, China

    Yongyong Xu

Authors
  1. Qiuping Li
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  2. Yi Lin
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  3. Yinghua Xu
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  4. Huiya Zhou
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  5. Liping Yang
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  6. Yongyong Xu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yinghua Xu or Yongyong Xu.

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval was gained from the research ethics committee of Jiangnan University, and access of approval was bestowed for the two related hospitals. It was made clear to them that participation of the study was voluntary, and they were free to withdraw from the study at any time for any reason, with no penalty. The research should not result in any undue discomfort to the participants. All information provided by the participants remained confidential and anonymous.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Funding

Financial support of this study was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81573250). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We (the authors) have full control of all primary data and agree to allow the journal to review the data if requested.

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Li, Q., Lin, Y., Xu, Y. et al. Construct validity of the 17-item Benefit Finding Scale in Chinese cancer patients and their family caregivers: a cross-sectional study. Support Care Cancer 25, 2387–2397 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-017-3644-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-017-3644-5

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