Factor structure and validation of an adolescent version of the Condom Attitude Scale: An instrument for measuring adolescents' attitudes toward condoms
| Autor: | Ted L. Brasfield, Janet S. St. Lawrence, David Reitman, Edna Alleyne, Kennis W. Jefferson, Aaron Shirley |
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| Rok vydání: | 1994 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Psychological Assessment. 6:352-359 |
| ISSN: | 1939-134X 1040-3590 |
| Popis: | Because of the absence of measures for use with adolescents the Condom Attitude Scale (CAS) was modified and its psychometric characteristics evaluated in a series of programmatic studies. Adolescent focus groups in study one examined the items and recommended changes in language. The number of items in the original CAS was therefore reduced from 57 to 35 and the scale was revised to a lower reading level. The modified 35-item version (CAS-35) was then pilot tested with a sample of 195 adolescents and achieved a Cronbachs alpha of 0.88 suggesting the need for further development. In study two the CAS-35 was administered to 312 African-American adolescents with convergent validity assessed against self-reported frequencies of condom use unprotected intercourse and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. Psychometric properties of the instrument were evaluated with item analysis factor analysis and reliability estimation. The scale was subsequently refined to 23 items with a full scale Cronbachs alpha of 0.80 and six subscales with internal consistencies in the range 0.59-0.73. In study three 88 African-American adolescents completed the revised measure at an one-month interval to assess temporal stability and the instrument achieved a test-retest reliability of 0.84. In study four a cross validation sample of predominantly white adolescents (52) completed the 23-item version of the measure to determine whether its psychometric properties and factor structure originally established with the African-American adolescents replicated in a more heterogenous adolescent sample would hold up. Its criterion and convergent validity were evaluated against paper-and-paper measures assessing AIDS knowledge attitudes toward prevention and health locus of control. The final instrument (CAS-A) is brief easily administered assesses adolescents attitudes towards condoms and may be of interest to researchers investigating adolescent sexual behavior teen pregnancy and HIV or STD prevention. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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