Content Validity of a Scale Measuring Psychosocial Stress Factors among Infertile Women in Treatment

Abstract

Infertility is highly prevalent in women. While women are focusing on self-development and financial independence before starting a family and the age of marriage is on the rise resulting in infertility. It is vital to understand and explore the emotional difficulties women experience at this stage. Thus, the researcher conducted in-depth interviews with 20 infertile women from infertility clinics and, using related reviews, generated 135 items. On the basis of repetition and representativeness of the construct, the scale was reduced to 95 items which were validated. The content validity using both qualitative and quantitative methods ensured the representativeness and validity of the scale. The researcher procured expert opinions for each item of the scale, and content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI) was obtained. The scale was given to 11 experts representing Gynecology and Psychology; and was requested to comment on the items on the basis of “Relevance,”“Clarity,” and “Necessity.” Thus, the experts had to check if the items represented the psychosocial sources of stress infertile women experienced during treatment and they also were pertaining to the dimensions. The CVR, CVI, and Kappa values were calculated. The items with CVR of 0.75 and above were retained, with 0.50 and below eliminated, and between 0.75 and 0.50 were modified and retained. The CVI for Relevance and Clarity indicates that 75 of the items are “appropriate” and five items required revision; 74 of the items are “Clear,” and six items required revision. Thus, the number of items was 80 after content validity. The Fleiss’s Kappa value of 1 for “Necessity,”“Relevance,” and “Clarity” indicates that the inter-rater agreement of the scale is “almost perfect agreement.”.