Validity and reliability of the Infant Feeding Attitude Scale in young people in Turkey

Abstract

It has been reported that the intention to breastfeed starts to form long before pregnancy, and that this is actually dependent upon the attitudes adopted in early adolescence. This methodological study involved the translation of the Infant Feeding Attitude Scale from English to Turkish and then the testing of the reliability and validity of the translated version. The study was conducted with 889 university students studying in the eight departments of the Health Science faculty in Turkey. Data for the study were collected through a self-administered questionnaire. The validity of the scale was analyzed in terms of content and construct validity. Content validity was assessed by means of the Content Validity Index, and construct validity using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability analysis was carried out by calculations using the internal consistency coefficient, the intraclass correlation coefficient, and corrected item total correlations. The scale content validity Index was found to be .99. The 13-item Infant Feeding Attitude Scale displayed a three-factor construct. The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed a three-factor construct. Factor loadings varied between .34 and .82. The internal consistency coefficient for the entire sample was .74, and the test–retest was calculated as .96. It was found in our study that the instrument that assesses the attitudes of young people about infant feeding styles was a valid and reliable tool that could be applied to the young people in Turkey. The scale can be used to determine the attitudes of young people towards breastfeeding in studies conducted to increase breastfeeding rates in the society.