Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of Midwives Self-Efficacy for Labor Support Scale-Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of Midwives Self-Efficacy for Labor Support Scale

Background and Purpose: The midwife's self-efficacy in supporting the mother during labor affects the onset of midwifery support in labor and childbirth. To date; there is no appropriate national instrument for measuring midwives self-efficacy of labor support in Iran. The present study aimed to investigate the factorial structure, validity, and reliability of the Persian version of the self-efficacy for labor support scale.Materials and Methods: A methodological study was carried out in which 213 midwives from selected hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences enrolled between January 2017 and September 2017. The participants completed a demographic questionnaire and the self-efficacy for labor support scale. The first step, for the validity of the instrument, qualitative face and content validity of the scale was performed. The second step, construct validity was evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis. Finally, the reliability of the instrument was studied by Spearman 's correlation coefficient and internal consistency.Result: The qualitative face and content validity of the Persian version of labor support self-efficacy scale was confirmed, and confirmatory factor analysis showed that it was well structured. The reliability of the scale using Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.93 and the Spearman's coefficient correlation was 0.72 indicating good reliability of the Persian version of the scale. Conclusion: The findings showed that the Persian version of the self-efficacy for labor support scale has good validity and reliability and could be used as an appropriate instrument for assessing self-efficacy for labor support by midwives in Iran