Assessment of the Attitudes Toward Childbirth in Health Sciences Students–Turkish Adaptation of the Questionnaire CAVE-ST-TR

Abstract

Background: Developing and improving education and training programs for future health professionals as a way to enhance perinatal care and reduce obstetric traumas is a necessity. Objective: The goal of the current study is to adapt a questionnaire that evaluates health science students’ attitudes toward women’s childbirth experiences (CAVE-ST; acronym is for cuestionario de actitudes sobre vivencias y experiencias en el parto) into Turkish and assess its psychometric properties. Method: The sample comprised 950 undergraduate students in midwifery departments in Turkey aged between 20 and 41 years (M = 22.42, SD = 1.79). Participants filled out the Demographic Information Form as well as CAVE-ST-TR. Item and scale content validity index (I-CVI and S-CVI), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Pearson’s correlation coefficients, Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient, and Guttman split-half coefficient were used to examine psychometric properties. Results: The results revealed that the 52-item and four-factor CAVE-ST-TR is a valid and reliable tool to assess health science students’ attitudes toward women’s childbirth experiences. Conclusion: This study would enhance the cross-cultural utility of the questionnaire.

Keywords:

• CAVE-ST
• CAVE-ST-TR
• childbirth
• perinatal care
• validity
• reliability

Acknowledgements

This paper contributes to the EU COST Action 18211: DEVoTION: Perinatal Mental Health and Birth-Related Trauma: Maximising best practice and optimal outcomes (supported by COST [European Cooperation in Science and Technology]). GGİ is management committee member, and all authors are members of COST Action CA18211.

Research Involving Human Participants and/or Animals

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee (Mersin University, Date: 28.10.2020, No: 22/728) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Author Contribution

Study conception and design: BKA, GGI, EGM.

Data collection: BKA, GGI.

Data analysis and interpretation: BKA.

Drafting of the article: BKA, GGI, EGM.

Critical revision of the article: BKA, GGI, EGM.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.