Psychometric Testing of the Supportive Needs of Adolescents Questionnaire: Breastfeeding

Grassley, Jane S.

Monday, 31 October 2011: 1:45 PM

Jane S. Grassley, PhD, RN, IBCLC
School of Nursing, Boise State University, Boise, ID
Becky Spencer, MSN, RN, IBCLC
College of Nursing, Texas Woman's University, Denton, TX
Deborah Bryson, RN, BSN, IBCLC
Lactation Services, Medical City Hospital Dallas, Dallas, TX

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to identify the underlying dimensions of breastfeeding social support for adolescent mothers in the immediate postpartum.

Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to discuss the process for evaluating the reliability and validity of a new instrument.

Purpose: The purpose of this presentation is to report the psychometric development and testing of the Supportive Needs of Adolescents Questionnaire: Breastfeeding (SNAB), an instrument to measure adolescents’ perceptions of nurses’ breastfeeding support in early postpartum. The target audience includes researchers and clinicians interested in breastfeeding support and instrument development.

Methods: This descriptive methodological study evaluated the psychometric properties of the SNAB questionnaire, a 20-item self-administered, Likert-type scale developed from a review of the literature and the supportive behaviors defined in the Theory of Social Support as emotional, informational, instrumental, and appraisal support (House, 1981). Participants ranked individual items with a score of 0 to 5. Expert content analysis, item analysis, scale reliability, and exploratory factor analysis comprised the psychometric evaluation.

Results: Expert content analysis by 8 lactation consultants resulted in a CVI of .815. The instrument was administered to adolescent mothers, ages 15-20 (N = 101) during their postpartum stay at three urban hospitals in Southwest United States. The Cronbach’s alpha for the revised 18-item scale was .83. Principal components analysis resulted in a 3 factor scale that explained 45% of the variance. Factor loadings ranged from .38 to .81. Cronbach’s alpha of the three subscales were .81, .76, and .68 respectively. All item-to-total correlations were .35 to .55.

Discussion: To offer effective support to adolescents as they initiate breastfeeding, nurses need to understand their needs. This instrument assists nurses in identifying and measuring adolescents’ perceptions of nurses’ breastfeeding support in the early postpartum. Nurses can then plan and evaluate age-appropriate nursing care strategies that facilitate breastfeeding, thus promoting the health of adolescent mothers and their children and decreasing their risk for diseases like breast cancer (mothers) and obesity (children).

References: House, J.S. (1981). Work stress and social support. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Keywords: Adolescents, breastfeeding, social support

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