Development of a Scale to Measure Attitude of Filipino Parents towards Moving out or

separating of their children as they walk the path of Independence.

Shorten your title.

Introduction

       Behaviors, emotions, and views on sociocultural environments are influenced by

valuable cultural and specific contextual factors (Markus and Kitayama, 1997). Collectivism is
the tendency, on the individual and societal level , to view oneself as interdependent, and
a member of a group, rather than as an independent being (Nickerson, 2021). In Asia,
people are more likely to exhibit an interdependent self in order to achieve a harmonious and
greater relationship, this is called interdependent self-construal that is a part of the collectivist
culture concept. Individuals who live in countries in Asia, Africa, and South America score high
on collectivism (Hofstede, 1991) and these values that are prevalent to them influence their
personality. The Philippines, with a score of 32, is considered a collectivistic society (Hofstede-
Insights, 2017). This manifests in a close long-term commitment to the member ‘group’, and
households often include an extended and nuclear family setup. Having the children complete
their education and work for their family (AFS-USA.org). However, the formalized rituals of
collectivism are fading as countries undergo rapid economic growth (Triandis 1995). As time
goes by and people face the new age of globalization and economic transition, cultural values are
often replaced by new ideas and mindsets.    

          Empty nest syndrome, on the other hand, is prevalent to parents especially those who are
in their mid-life stage, whose child is about to leave home because of many factors be it career-
related, family issues and the list goes on. Empty nest syndrome isn't a clinical diagnosis.
Instead, empty nest syndrome is a phenomenon in which parents experience feelings of sadness
and loss when the last child leaves home (Al Ubaidi, 2017). Our group is proposing to develop a
scale to seek prior knowledge and information towards these psychosocial phenomena
specifically in the Philippine setting.       

The Scale

        The test will be named as That-Kid-Gone Test, this test will measure the attitudes of
parents towards the thought and process of moving out of their children. (As it is, the most
critical issue in your scale would be your intended test takers, so be resourceful and persevering
in getting the needed participants in the second term when you do the tryout.) With this, the
researchers will determine whether or not parents have a negative or positive connotation
towards about their beloved children actually leaving their household (the attitude is not towards
their children, but on the feeling of being left in their empty nest, so to speak). This will benefit
prior studies and knowing if we Filipinos are still clinging to the sense of interdependent self-
construal despite the new age’s inevitable forthcoming. Perhaps you need to be clear, what age
are we talking about here? Perhaps you need to specify that it’s about children who are
still single but decide to leave the family and leave independently? When children get
married, would parents still want them to stay in the family?
      Other than that, this will also help identify parents who might have a brewing developmental
crisis (from Erikson’s psychosocial) and hopefully confirm if the moving out of the child is the
factor of his/her developmental crisis thus a sense of early intervention will be planned to avoid
prior thoughts of suicide, feeling of worthlessness and despair at the same time making them
understand that this part of life and helping them navigate mid-life by opening up feelings of
unhappiness and impulsive actions and decisions (Al Ubaidi, 2017). It contains questions
answerable by a 5-point Likert scale and multiple-choice questions. 

The Test-takers and Test facilitators

            The selection criteria for test-takers or participants are parents within the age spectrum of
35 to 65 years old. The period where both men and women exhibit feelings of uneasiness and
dissatisfaction with their current career, marriage, or their health, and a period of urge/impulse to
take irrational action to improve self-perception (Al Ubaidi, 2017). This is also the stage where
Generativity vs Stagnation according to Erickson’s Stages of development occur where success
leads to feelings of usefulness and accomplishment, while failure results in shallow involvement
in the world (Mc Leod, 2018).  The participants will be sampled from both urban and rural areas,
either living alone or with relatives. This test will be facilitated by mental health experts. So will
you be able to administer your own test? Kailangan bang psychologist para ma administer ito?
May special features ba ito, like projective ba sya?

The Sub Scales

              The subscales that will be used that will have a significant connection to the main scale
are; Affective Subscale and Cognitive Subscale.

Affective Subscale involves items in terms of feelings, values, and enthusiasm in order to
know what they feel before, during, and after the departure of their child/children from their
household and put an end to their daily collective interactions. This will help to show prior
feelings towards the departure, presenting a positive or negative connotation towards leaving. As
mentioned in the main scale, empty nest syndrome or the feeling of sadness toward people
moving out of home is a common phenomenon to experience, among others. In a study by
Bougea et al. (2020), the feelings of loss, grief, and difficulty in changing roles inside the house
were also said to be part of the empty-nest psychological effects. The study then emphasized the
greater degree of the effectiveness of the syndrome on women, who are supposedly mothers, for
they have formed stronger bonds with their frequent interaction with children which is rooted in
social construct-defined roles. According to earlier research of Dennerstein et al., (2002),
however, shows contradicting effects on Australian mid-aged women. The said study shows that
children moving out of home changed the women’s mood positively, and reduced their ‘daily
hassles’. This scale will determine the feelings of Filipino parents once their child/children move
out of their home to be independent. Following literature and studies, it is almost certain that
parents would probably miss having their children around when they are in midlife. I’m having
doubts about the proposed instrument now.

The second proposed subscale would be the Cognitive Subscale which will focus on the
items that will generate the opinions, beliefs, and thoughts of the respondents. This subscale will
aid the main scale in obtaining what the Filipino parents normally believe when it comes to the
thought of their child/children moving out. According to Mazzuco (2006), the young adult’s
departure to one’s home was viewed by the parents in countries with individualistic culture as a
positive thing because aside from the independence it gives, the departure of the child/children
lessens the arguments and stress inside the home. Children’s path towards independence that
entitles them to separate from the comfort that they provide is something that parents expect
when their children reach a certain age (Harkins, 1978).  However, in a study conducted by
Egondi (2013), leaving the family home has its negative consequences from the perspective of
the parents as far as their child/children’s security is concerned. In addition, the loss of parental
support during the period of adjustment has led to a state of depression both in men and women
(Borland, 1982). This scale will also obtain the extent of Filipino parents’ concept understanding
towards the separation of their children to become independent. So two subscales only.
Hmmm…

Why not consider developing a scale that will measure the youth’s own tendency to live
independently, instead of their parents? Like you can reframe your title as: “Development of a
Scale to Measure Familial Attachment among Filipino College Students”

This way, you can be assured of the following: (1) you can have more respondents, since they
are college students; (2) there is available literature about striving for independence versus
wanting to remain dependent, like in the Philippines, children extending their stay at home
(whether their parents like it or not) seems to be an acceptable practice, following our collectivist
culture); (3) you can have a behavioral subscale (i.e., will the respondent college student actually
want to be independent – something that you cannot ask the parents, because the one really
concerned here is the child.

Revise your main scale definition, as well as your subscale definitions – orienting them towards
the children and not toward the parents. Cognitive subscale would measure their opinions and
perspectives about moving out of the family even when they are single; whether they perceive
this being the action of a “responsible” son/daughter; whether they find it advantageous to stay
versus leave, etc. Affective subscale would cover their own attachment feelings, the importance
of asserting one’s independence, etc. The behavioral subscale would measure their own tendency
to remain at home beyond their quarter lives or be independent, whether they would actually
leave their household and live by themselves, etc. You simply have to elaborate on these (I gave
you many examples already ha.)

Refine and resubmit together with the proposed items on November 23, 2021.

References: 

Al Ubaidi BA (2017) Empty-Nest Syndrome: Pathway to "Construction or Destruction". J Fam

Med Dis Prev 3:064. doi.org/10.23937/2469-5793/1510064
https://www.afsusa.org/countries/philippines
Bougea, A. M., Despoti, A. A., & Vasilopoulos, E. (2019). Empty-nest-related psychosocial
stress: Conceptual issues, Future Directions in economic crisis. Psychiatriki, 30(4),329–
338. https://doi.org/10.22365/jpsych.2019.304.329

Borland, D. C. (1982). A Cohort Analysis Approach to the Empty-Nest Syndrome among Three
Ethnic Groups of Women: A Theoretical Position. Journal of Marriage and the Family,
44(1), 117. doi:10.2307/351267 

Dennerstein, L., Dudley, E., & Guthrie, J. (2002). Empty nest or revolving door? A prospective
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entering the home. Psychological Medicine, 32(3), 545–
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Harkins, E. B. (1978). Effects of Empty Nest Transition on Self-Report of Psychological and

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Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the mind. London, England:
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Kitayama, S., Markus, H. R., Matsumoto, H., & Norasakkunkit, V. (1997). Individual and
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Mazzuco, S. (2006). The impact of children leaving home on the parents’ wellbeing: a
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http://www.jstor.org/stable/29789324

Mcleod, S. (2018, May 3). Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development. Simply

Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html

Mitchell, B. A., & Lovegreen, L. D. (2009). The Empty Nest Syndrome in Midlife Families: A
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