Reliability and validity of the Cambridge Worry Scale in pregnant Turkish women

Abstract

Objectivethis study examined the psychometric properties of the Cambridge Worry Scale (CWS) and assessed worries in pregnant Turkish women. Designa descriptive, cross sectional study. Settingthe 35 Family Health Centres located in the Yıldırım sub-province of Bursa. Instrumentsthe data were collected using the ‘Pregnant Information Form’, which determines the individual characteristics of the women and the ‘CWS’, which determines worries. The CWS is a Likert-type scale that consists of 16 items and has four sub-dimensions including the women׳s own health, relationships, socio-medical and socio-economic conditions. In the CWS, the total score is not calculated, and each article is evaluated in itself. Findings200 pregnant women were recruited from December 2010 to November 2011. The mean age of the pregnant women was 25.92±5.33, 43.0% had completed primary school, and 69.0% were not in paid employment. It has been determined that the content validity index for the Turkish form is 0.98 and that the internal consistency of Cronbach׳s alpha value of the scale is 0.795. As a result of exploratory factor analysis, it has been concluded that the factor loadings of the scale from 0.435 to 0.902, and it can be used in a particular dimension that is not divided into the components of the scale. On the basis of the confirmatory factor analysis, it has been determined that the Goodness of Fit Index of the one-factor structure is better than four-factor structure, but the values of the goodness fit index in each model are under 0.85 and the inaccuracy of the fit index is high. Conclusionsthe Turkish form of the CWS is an appropriate measurement tool in terms of language and content validity, and its single-factor structure can be applied to Turkish culture and can correctly identify the worries of pregnant women.