Development of a scale for determining violence against infertile women: A scale development study

Abstract

Background: To develop a scale to evaluate violence experienced among infertile women. Method: Three steps were followed in the development of the scale: Literature review and deep interviews togenerate item pool, content validity testing, and administration of draft. Content validity was evaluated by experts. The draft scale was pilot-tested with a convenience sample of 30 women during their treatment. After the pilot-test, 166 infertile females filled the scale in the infertility clinic of a university hospital in Istanbul. Results: For evaluation of construct validity, Kaiser-Mayer Olkin was 0.91. Bartlett test was statistically significant (p = 0.00). According to the results of analysis, 5 domains were determined: "domestic violence", "social pressure", "punishment", "exposure to traditional practices" and "exclusion". The values of correlation of item were between 0.50 and 0.82. Item-total and subscale-total correlation varied between 0.57-0.91. The scale had good internal reliability, with Cronbachs Alpha coefficient of 0.96. The other coefficients of subscales varied between 0.80-0.94. Conclusions: The scale called "Infertile Womens Exposure to Violence Determination Scale" indicates high reliability, good content and construct validity. Routine screening for domestic violence in infertility clinics is necessary to give affected women an opportunity to access appropriate health care and support services. On theother hand, common use of Infertile Womens Exposure to Violence Determination Scale in infertility clinics provides increased sensitivity and awareness by caregiver. © 2014 Onat; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.