Postpartum family planning attitudes among Turkish women: development of a reliable and valid scale.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop a scale based on the Health Belief Model (HBM) to assess the family planning (FP) attitudes of postpartum women with 0- to 12-month-old infants residing in eight neighbourhoods of the Bornova province, Izmir, Turkey. Family planning is an integral component of maternal and infant health during the postpartum period and is a fundamental aspect of healthcare services in the prenatal and postnatal period. The Postpartum Family Planning Attitude Scale (PFPAS) was developed in four stages: item pool development, content validity evaluation, pilot study, and reliability and validity assessment. The PFPAS was administered to 292 women. The developed scale comprised 27 items and six sub-dimensions. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to evaluate the reliability of the scale. Construct validity was evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.88, indicating good reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis validated the structural validity of the scale, with a chi-square/degree of freedom ratio of 2.24, an RMSEA value of 0.068, and a CFI value of 0.95. The lowest and highest possible scores for the PFPAS were 27 and 135, respectively, with a mean total score of 105.32 ± 11.91.