Asian Nursing Research
Volume 2, Issue 3 , Pages 166-172, September 2008

Assessing Self-Efficacy in Infant Care: A Comparison of Two Scales

  • Tassanee Prasopkittikun, RN, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Associate Professor, Department of Pediatric Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Mahidol University, Thailand
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorrespondence to: Tassanee Prasopkittikun, RN, PhD, Department of Pediatric Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Mahidol University, Bangkoknoi, Bangkok 10700, Thailand
    • ,
  • Narumon Vipuro, RN, MNS

      Affiliations

    • Registered Nurse, Samutsakorn Hospital, Samutsakorn Province, Thailand

Received 6 June 2008; received in revised form 30 June 2008; accepted 5 September 2008.

Article Outline

Purpose

The Self-efficacy in Infant Care Scale (SICS) was developed with acceptable psychometric properties to assess the degree of Thai mothers' belief in their ability to perform designated infant care tasks. The purpose of this study was to identify whether the SICS, with a 6-point rating scale, can be used as an alternative to a rating scale with 0–100 confidence continuum scale.

Methods

Eligible subjects included 42 mothers with 6 or 9 years of education who took their infants to the well-baby clinic for immunizations at Samutsakorn Hospital. Each mother first completed the original scale and then the 6-point SICS rating scale. Afterwards, the mothers were asked to indicate which of the questionnaires was easier to administer.

Results

Using Cronbach's α, the reliability of both scales was .95. Correlations between the same items of both response formats of the SICS revealed that only 11 pairs of items demonstrated high magnitudes of correlation. Correlations between the same subscales and between the total scales of both response formats were high but less than .95. Slightly over half of all mothers (57%) preferred the 6-point rating scale. Interestingly, 59% of the group with 6 years of education preferred the original scale, compared with only 25% of the group with 9 years of education.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that correlations between SICS and two different response formats do not reach the criteria for use as alternatives to each other. However, further research is needed, with particular emphasis on the investigation of construct validity and comparisons between the two scales.

Key Words:  infant care , instrumentation , self-efficacy

No full text is available. To read the body of this article, please view the PDF online.

 

Back to Article Outline

References 

  1. Akesiritrirat, S. (2000). The relationship between mother's personal characteristics, knowledge about asthma, self-efficacy social support and dependent-care capability in caring for asthmatic children. Unpublished Master's thesis, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
  2. Bandura A . Self-efficacy: The exercise of control . New York: W. H. Freeman and Company; 1997;
  3. Bernal H , Wooley S , Schensul J . The challenge of using Likert-type scales with low-literate ethnic populations . Nursing Research . 1997;46:179–181
  4. Bijl JJ , Poelgeest-Eeltink AV , Shortridge-Baggett LM . The psychometric properties of the diabetes management self-efficacy scale for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus . Journal of Advanced Nursing . 1999;30:352–359
  5. Burns N , Grove SK . The practice of nursing research: Conduct, critique, and utilization . St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Saunders; 2005;
  6. Cohen J . Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences . Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 1988;
  7. Coleman PK , Karraker KH . Self-efficacy and parenting quality: Findings and future applications . Developmental Review . 1997;18:47–85
  8. Danchai, K. (1997). Self-efficacy and child health promoting behaviors in mothers of toddlers. Unpublished Master's thesis, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
  9. Flaskerud JH . Is the Likert scale format culturally biased? . Nursing Research . 1988;37:185–186
  10. Froman RD , Owen SV . Infant care selfefficacy . Scholarly Inquiry for Nursing Practice . 1989;3:199–205
  11. Gross D , Rocissano L . Maternal confidence in toddlerhood: Its measurement for clinical practice and research . Nurse Practitioner . 1988;13:19–29
  12. Hurley AC . Measuring self-care ability in patients with diabetes: The Insulin Management Diabetes Self-Efficacy Scale . In:  Strickland OL ,  Waltz CF editor. Measurement of nursing outcomes . New York: Springer; 1990;p. 28–44
  13. Jamieson S . Likert scales: How to (ab)use them . Medical Education . 2004;38:1212–1218
  14. Knapp TR . Treating ordinal scales as interval scales: An attempt to resolve the controversy . Nursing Research . 1990;39:121–123
  15. Lee JW , Jones PS , Mineyama Y , Zhang XE . Cultural differences in responses to a Likert scale . Research in Nursing & Health . 2002;25:295–306
  16. Maibach E , Murphy DA . Self-efficacy in health promotion research and practice: Conceptualization and measurement . Health Education Research . 1995;10:37–50
  17. Maurer TJ , Pierce H . A comparison of Likert scale and traditional measures of self-efficacy . Journal of Applied Psychology . 1998;83:324–329
  18. Munro BH . Statistical methods for health care research . 4th ed.. Philadelphia: Lippincott; 2001;
  19. Polit DF , Beck CT . Nursing research: Principles and methods . 7th ed.. Philadelphia: Lippincott; 2004;
  20. Prasopkittikun T . The determinants of competent parenting among Thai mothers in providing preterm infants' home environment . Thai Journal of Pediatric Nursing . 2001;1:42–55
  21. Prasopkittikun T , Tilokskulchai F , Sinsuksai N , Sitthimongkol Y . Self-efficacy in infant care scale: Development and psychometric testing . Nursing and Health Sciences . 2006;8:44–50
  22. Resnick B . Self-efficacy . In:  Peterson SJ ,  Bredow TS editor. Middle range theories application to nursing research . Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2004;p. 97–124
  23. Rujiraprasert, N. (1996). The relationship between social support, selected factors and maternal role attainment in mothers of low birth weight infants. Unpublished Master's thesis, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
  24. Sirikarna, S. (1999). Relationships among personal factors, social support, perception of maternal competence, perception of newborn behaviors and maternal role adaptation of postpartum mothers. Unpublished Master's thesis, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
  25. Vojir CP , Jones KR , Fink R , Hutt E . What a difference a point makes! Scaling issues . Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing . 2006;11:257–259

PII: S1976-1317(08)60040-7

doi:10.1016/S1976-1317(08)60040-7

Asian Nursing Research
Volume 2, Issue 3 , Pages 166-172, September 2008

Article Tools