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Developing and assessing a kin keeping scale with application to identifying central influencers in African American family networks

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Abstract

Promoting family communication about inherited disease risk is an arena in which family systems theory is highly relevant. One family systems’ construct that can support promotion of family communication regarding inherited disease risk is the notion of “kin keeping.” However, kin keeping and whether it might be capitalized on to encourage family communication about inherited risk has been understudied. The goal of this report was to propose a broadened conceptualization of kin keeping that distinguishes between a structural functional perspective (role conceptualization) and transitional behaviors (skill conceptualization), and to develop and evaluate a scale that would enable this assertion to be tested among a sample of African American community health workers. We developed a scale using four steps: item development using concept analysis and content validity, scale development among a national sample (n = 312), scale evaluation using exploratory factor analysis (n = 52), and scale reduction. We then posed suppositions of associations that would indicate whether the developed kin keeping measure was assessing a specific family role or set of behaviors. Our results included the development of the first quantitative measure of kin keeping (9- and 15-item scales). Model fit for 9-item scale (CFI = 0.97, AFGI = 0.89, RMSEA = 0.09, SMRM = 0.06) and model fit for 15-item scale (CFI = 0.97, AFGI = 0.89, RMSEA = 0.06, SMRM = 0.05). These findings allow us to move toward more rigorous research about the role of kin keeping on information sharing and health decision making. Results also suggest that, contrary to the historical structural functional conceptualization of kin keeping as a role, kin keeping might also be conceptualized as a behavior or set of modifiable behaviors. Ultimately, the kin keeping scale could be used to operationalize kin keeping in various theoretical models and frameworks, guide intervention development to encourage or train for kin keeping behaviors, and test assumptions of whether families vary in the density of kin keeping.

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Data Availability

Data are available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.

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Funding

Caitlin G. Allen received funding K00CA253576. Cam Escoffery has support from U48DP006377 and P30CA138292.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA

    Caitlin G. Allen

  2. Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Caitlin G. Allen, Colleen M. McBride, Cam Escoffery, Yue Guan, Clarissa Hood, Jingsong Zaho, Gene Brody & Weihua An

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  1. Caitlin G. Allen
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  2. Colleen M. McBride
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  3. Cam Escoffery
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  4. Yue Guan
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  7. Gene Brody
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  8. Weihua An
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Contributions

CGA and CMM conceptualized the project, CGA secured funding for the project, CGA and CH completed the data collection, CGA and WA completed the data analysis, CGA and CMM completed the initial writing of the manuscript, all authors contributed to editing, and all authors reviewed the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Caitlin G. Allen.

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Allen, C.G., McBride, C.M., Escoffery, C. et al. Developing and assessing a kin keeping scale with application to identifying central influencers in African American family networks. J Community Genet 14, 593–603 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12687-023-00665-9

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