MOM Empowerment Scale – MOMES
Measures empowerment across self-determination, self-sufficiency, and decision-making skills in mothers and low-income women.
Scale Development & Technical Details
Scale Overview
The MOM Empowerment Scale – MOMES was developed by Kovach, A. C., Becker, J., & Worley, H. (2004). It is designed to measure Empowerment. The scale is intended for use with Low-income women and mothers of young children.
Scale Structure
This instrument consists of 20 items organized into 3 factors/subscales: Self-Determination, Decision-Making, Self-Sufficiency.
| Factor / Subscale | Items | N |
|---|---|---|
| Self-Determination | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | 6 |
| Decision-Making | 7,8,9,10 | 4 |
| Self-Sufficiency | 11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20 | 10 |
Response Format
Respondents rate each item using a custom response format.
Response anchors: 1 = Strongly Disagree / Very Hard / Unable / Not very confident, 2 = Disagree / Somewhat Hard / Meet a few / A little confident, 3 = Neither / Neither hard nor easy / Meet some / Somewhat confident, 4 = Agree / Somewhat Easy / Meet most / Very confident, 5 = Strongly Agree / Very Easy / Meet all / Extremely confident.
Scoring
Items are scored by subscale, with each subscale sum representing a distinct dimension.
Total scores range from 20 to 100. Interpretation guidelines:
- Low Empowerment: 20 – 49
- Moderate Empowerment: 50 – 79
- High Empowerment: 80 – 100
Psychometric Properties
Internal Consistency: The scale has demonstrated good to excellent internal consistency with reported Cronbach’s alpha values of Self-Sufficiency (alpha = 0.87), Self-Determination (alpha = 0.83), Decision-Making (alpha = 0.77).
Administration
The scale is self-administered and typically takes approximately 5 minutes to complete. It can be administered individually or in group settings. No special training is required for administration.