Translation and Determination of Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of Measuring the Caring Behaviors Scale for Health Care Students and Providers

Abstract

Introduction: Measurement of caring behavior can not only be useful for the measurement of the caring behavior of students and employees of the healthcare system but can also be used to identify and provide timely information about the status of these behaviors in students and employees to carry out interventions and modify policies. The present study aimed to translate and determine the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the caring behavior scale on healthcare students and providers. Methods: This methodological study was carried out in 2023 with the participation of 330 students and employees of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran who were selected using the convenience sampling method. The instrument was translated using the forward-backward method. The final version of the scale was checked in terms of validity (content, face, and construct validity [using confirmatory factor analysis]) and reliability (Cronbach's alpha, test-retest, and intraclass correlation) in SPSS software (version 25) and AMOS software (version 24). Results: In reviewing the face validity, scores of all items were higher than 1.5. content validity of all items was accepted, and the factor loading of all the items was higher than 0.4; therefore, all the items were retained. The goodness of fit indices of the model indicated the approval of the model and its good fit (GFI: 0.884, NFI: 0.911, CFI: 0.921, and RMSEA: 0.07). Reliability of the scale was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient, test-retest, and intra-cluster correlation of 0.84, 0.86, and 0.83, respectively. Conclusion: Psychometric features of the Persian version of the CBS-HSP scale were favorable. Therefore, it can be used in future studies to measure the care behaviors of the Persian population and also evaluate effective interventions on this outcome.