Design and Evaluation of the validation Properties of the “Understanding the Necessity of Adolescent Girls' Reproductive Health Education to Mothers Questionnaire” (UNRHEMQ)

Introduction Although there are several factors in adolescent sexual problems, Parent-adolescent communication has been known as a key strategy to reduce sexual risk behaviors .The present study aimed to design and evaluate the validation Properties of the “Understanding the Necessity of Adolescent Girls' Reproductive Health Education to Mothers Questionnaire” (UNRHEMQ).Methods The study was a mixed (qualitative and quantitative) sequential exploratory study. In the qualitative phase, a preliminary questionnaire with 53 items emerged from in-depth interviews with 26 mothers with 11-19 years old daughters and 14 key informants. In the quantitative phase, to assess the validity of the scale, face and content validities were assessed. To assess the reliability of the scale, the internal consistency and stability of the scale were measured. Considering cutoff points as 1.5 for item impact, 0.49 for content validity ratio (CVR), and 0.79 for content validity index (CVI). Cronbach’s alpha values between 0.7 and 0.8 denote an adequate internal consistency and the intraclass correlation index ICC higher than 80%, the stability is desirable.Results Assessment of the content validity of the questionnaire demonstrated CVR = 0.89 and CVI = 0.88. Measurement of internal consistency reported a Cronbach’s α of .845 and stability assessment of the UNRHEMQ through the test–retest demonstrated intraclass correlation coefficient of .93.Conclusion It was identified that the UNRHEMQ is a valid and reliable instrument that could be used to assess mothers 'understanding of the importance of adolescent girls' reproductive health education, as well as to design appropriate interventions and to evaluate their effectiveness.

Keywords:

Adolescent Girls , Reproductive Health , Education , Mothers , Questionnaire