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. 2021 Feb 4;16(2):e0246075.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246075. eCollection 2021.

Brazilian version of the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension: Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric evaluation among healthcare students

Dyego Carlos Souza Anacleto de Araújo  1   2 , Sylmara Nayara Pereira  2 , Willian Melo Dos Santos  2 , Pedro Wlisses Dos Santos Menezes  2 , Kérilin Stancine Dos Santos Rocha  1   2 , Sabrina Cerqueira-Santos  2   3 , André Faro  4 , Alessandra Rezende Mesquita  2 , Divaldo Pereira de Lyra Jr  1   2   3
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Brazilian version of the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension: Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric evaluation among healthcare students

Dyego Carlos Souza Anacleto de Araújo et al. PLoS One. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Introduction: Communication apprehension (CA) refers to an individual's level of fear or anxiety toward either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons. The Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24) is the most widely used measure of CA, even among healthcare students.

Objective: This study aimed to undertake a cross-cultural adaptation of this scale, translate it into Brazilian Portuguese, and examine its psychometric properties among healthcare students.

Methods: The translation and cross-cultural adaptation procedures were undertaken with the objective of establishing compatibility between the original and translated scales. The content validity of the scale was established based on the feedback of a multidisciplinary expert committee. Its psychometric properties were evaluated using a convenience sample of 616 healthcare students. Its construct validity was examined using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Its internal consistency was examined by computing Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega coefficients. Its criterion validity was examined against the Interpersonal Communication Competence Scale (ICCS).

Results: The adapted scale demonstrated acceptable content validity. EFA showed that it was undergirded by one dimension, and this observation was confirmed by the results of CFA. The scale demonstrated excellent internal consistency. Its convergent validity was examined by conducting correlation analysis, and scores on the adapted PRCA-24 were negatively correlated with scores on the ICCS.

Conclusion: The Brazilian version of the PRCA-24 has satisfactory psychometric properties and is, therefore, suitable for use with Brazilian healthcare students. It can be used to assess their communication needs for the purpose of designing tailored training programs.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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