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

AIM: 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. INTRODUCTION: 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. METHODS: 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. FINDINGS: 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.