Background: Despite numerous studies on work-family conflict, research on guilt feelings resulting from this conflict is limited in many countries, including Iran. This limitation can be attributed to the lack of a valid tool to measure this concept. Consequently, the development or translation and validation of existing instrument in the field of work-
family guilt is necessary. The present study aimed to validate the Persian version of the Work-Family Guilt Scale.
Method: In this methodological study, the 7-item McElwain Work-Family Guilt Scale was first translated and back-translated. Content validity, as well as face validity and suitability, were then assessed. To examine construct validity, both exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were conducted. The EFA was performed on a sample of 80 working mothers, and the CFA on a separate sample of 214 working mothers from Bushehr Province, southern Iran, in 2024. In addition,
participants completed the McElwain Work-Family Guilt Scale, the Carlson Work-Family Conflict Questionnaire,
Support Questionnaire. The correlations of work-family guilt with work- family conflict and social support were examined. Internal consistency, composite reliability, and test-retest stability were also assessed.
Results: The tool showed high content validity, with a content validity ratio of 0.91 and a content validity index of 0.97. EFA, supported a two- factor structure that accounted for 68% of the total variance. CFA confirmed the two-factor structure with all items loading above 0.7. The average variance extracted for the overall scale and its two domains was above 60%, indicating acceptable convergent validity. Also, the square root of the variance extracted for each domain was higher than the correlation between the two domains, providing discriminant validity. Work-family guilt was positively correlated with work-family conflict (r = 0.598; p < 0.001) and negatively correlated with social support (r = - 0.277; p