The Good Mothering Expectations Scale: An International Instrument Development Study

Our purpose in this research was to develop a measure that reflected cross-cultural and cultural-specific expectations of “good mothering.” We based our measure on samples of South Korean mothers (n = 626) and White mothers in the United States (n = 612). We developed an initial pool of 74 items that described good mothering in both cultures. We conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses separately for each group. We found different factor structures: the South Korean sample had three factors, the United States’ sample yielded four factors. Two of these factors were similar in meaning across the groups, although the items that loaded onto these factors were not identical. Our analyses also yielded three factors unique to each group. The final instrument comprises 30 items that loaded onto both the shared and unique factors for the two groups. Additional support for the validity and reliability of the scale is presented.