Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Communication Skills Attitude Scale among medical students in Liaoning province, China: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to develop the Chinese version of the Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS-Ch) in order to test the psychometric properties of the modified instrument. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was conducted in September 2016 to evaluate the attitudes of Chinese medical students towards communication skills learning using CSAS at China Medical University. PARTICIPANTS: The study recruited 510 fifth-year medical students by cluster sampling. METHODS: Cronbach’s α coefficients were calculated for the entire questionnaire and for the subscales to evaluate the internal consistency of the CSAS-Ch. In order to determine the structure underlying the CSAS, the scale was factor analysed using maximum likelihood extraction and the oblique rotation method. RESULTS: Of the 510 medical students, 492 (96.5%) completed the questionnaire. Cronbach’s α coefficient for the CSAS scale was 0.897. Exploratory factor analysis showed that the four-factor structure accounted for 59.8% of the variance and produced an acceptable fit to the data. CONCLUSIONS: The modified CSAS-Ch can be used to evaluate attitudes towards communication skills. Further Future research for improving the teaching methods for communication skills should explore the relationship between medical students’ attitudes and the demographic characteristics.