Validity and reliability study of the Turkish form of the birth beliefs scale

Validity and Reliability Study of the Turkish Form of the Birth Beliefs Scale This research was a methodological type study with the aim of determining the validity and reliability of the Birth Beliefs Scale, which was developed in another country to evaluate the basic beliefs of women concerning birth, when adapted to Turkish culture. The population of the study consisted of all the pregnant women who attended the Ege Maternity and Gynecology Annex Outpatients' Department of Tepecik Teaching and Research Hospital, who fulfilled the criteria for inclusion, and who consented to take part in the study. It was determined that the lower limit for the number of people in the sample must be 5-10 times the number of items on the scale. The study was performed with 205 pregnant women who had no hindrance of a normal birth, who had completed their 14th week of pregnancy, who were over the age of 18, for whom it was their first birth, who were literate, and who had no psychiatric disorder. Data was collected using a Personal Description Form prepared by the researchers consisting of 16 questions covering the socio-demographic details of the mothers-to-be and their medical histories, and the Birth Beliefs Scale, consisting of 11 items. Analyses were made of language, coverage and structural validity to test the validity of the scale, and to test reliability, internal consistency and temporal invariance were analyzed. In order to achieve language validity of the scale, experts in the field who knew both languages first translated the scale into Turkish, and then translated it back into its original language, English. After this, experts were consulted to determine content validity, the coverage validity index was calculated from the scores given by the experts for the items, and necessary emendations were made to the items in accordance with recommendations. The value of all items on the scale was found to be above 0.78. Thus the Turkish form was created without the need to eliminate any items. After the scale was given its final form, it was presented to the writer for approval. For the structural validity of the scale, explanatory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed. As a result of the analyses, it was found that the 11 item scale grouped under two factors. Reliability analyses of the scale showed Cronbach alpha coefficients of 0.890 for the internal consistency level of the subdimension 'Birth is a natural event' and 0.868 for the internal consistency level of the subdimension 'Birth is a medical event'. In the test-retest to determine invariance against time, intra-class correlation coefficients were found to be 0.993 for the subdimension of 'Birth is a natural event', and 0.984 for the subdimension of 'Birth is a medical event'. The correlation level between the two factors was negative at a level of 0.752, and was statistically significant. In conclusion, it is thought that this adaptation of the Birth Beliefs Scale which has been added to the literature can be used in the field and is a valid and reliable instrument. Key words: Birth, Belief; Scale