The Turkish Validity and Reliability of The Adolescent Dysmenorrhea Self-Care Scale

Abstract

Objective: Dysmenorrhea is a common health problem that negatively affects daily life and academic skills when not managed well. This study was conducted to examine the Turkish validity and reliability of the Adolescent Dysmenorrhea Self-Care Scale. Methods: This methodological study was conducted in 7 high schools in Bursa, Turkey. The research was carried out with 1041 high school students who met the participation criteria. The Adolescent Dysmenorrhea Self-Care Scale was adapted to Turkish by using translation-back translation method. The validity of the scale was evaluated with the content validity index, confirmatory factor analysis, similarity and discriminant validity coefficients and reliability, item-total correlation, internal consistency coefficient and test-retest analysis. Results: According to the evaluations of the 10 experts whose opinions were taken for the Content Validity, it is determined that each item scored above 3 (3.52-4.00), and the mean score was 3.92 ± 0.14 and the content validity index was .98. Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient was found α = .96. Confirmatory factor analysis fit indexes and similarity and discriminant validity coefficients showed that the scale has sufficient compatibility with the theoretical six-factor structure. Item total correlations of subdimensions were r = .20-.68 and Cronbach's alpha coefficients were .77-.65. Test-retest correlations of the Adolescent Dysmenorrhea Self-Care Scale and its subdimensions were found r = .87-.99. Conclusion: Turkish Adolescent Dysmenorrhea Self-Care Scale is a valid and reliable data collection tool consisting of 40 items and six subdimensions.