Development of an instrument to measure mothers' performance of self-care activities for children

One who performs self-care activities for another is known as a dependent care agent, according to Orem. Attempts to study mothers' performance of self-care activities for children have been impeded by the lack of an instrument with which to measure dependent care agent performance. Findings based on a sample of 475 women indicate that the Dependent Care Agent (DCA) questionnaire developed in this study had a coefficient alpha of .91, with item-total correlations ranging from .27 to .63. Although Orem's expected dimensions of universal, developmental, and health deviation requisites were not represented in the factor analysis, individual requisites for self-care were clearly present.