Determining the Appropriateness of the “What If” Situations Test (WIST) with Turkish Pre-Schoolers

ABSTRACT

Measurement instruments are needed to assess the child’s sexual abuse prevention program. The purpose of the study was to determine the reliability and validity of the WIST (What If Situations Test) for Turkish culture. Participants were children of the 3–6 age group attending pre-school education institutions and the sample size was identified by means of a power analysis. Seventy children were identified as the sample with 0.85 power and 0.05 type I error according to the power analysis. Language validity, content validity, internal validity coefficient (Cronbach alpha coefficient), and test–retest analyses were conducted in terms of validity and reliability in the scope of efforts for adaptation to Turkish culture. Firstly, Kendall W = 0.83 was the score for the expert opinions concerning the content validity of the language validity scale. It was found that the Cronbach alpha coefficients were between 0.68 and 0.90 for the scale sub-dimensions of appropriate and inappropriate recognition, saying, doing, telling, and reporting. The test–retest reliability of the scale was found to be r = 0.89 and the test–retest reliabilities for the sub-dimensions (appropriate recognition, inappropriate recognition, say skills, do skills, tell skills, and reporting skills) were between r = 0.48 and r = 0.92. The test–retest reliability for the Personal Safety Questionnaire (PSQ), as having complimentary items to the WIST, was found to be r = 0.82. The reliability and validity analysis of the ‘What If’ Situations Test (WIST), used to evaluate pre-schoolers’ skills regarding self-protection against sexual abuse, showed that the Test’s adaptation to Turkish culture was reliable and valid.

KEYWORDS:

• Children
• measurement
• methodology
• prevention
• sexual abuse
• cultural issues

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to thank Prof. Sandy K. Wurtele for her contributions and permission to use the measurement. The authors extend their special thanks to the children and their parents who participated in the study, providing the essential research data.

Declaration of interest

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Uludag University Scientific Research Projects (BAP) Management Unit [(KUAP SYO 2014/60), IRB00004769].