Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec 12;22(1):860.
doi: 10.1186/s12909-022-03928-0.

Development and validation of conflict management attitude questionnaire for medical students

Fatemeh Mohseni  1   2 , Aeen Mohammadi  3 , Mahboobeh Khabaz Mafinejad  4 , Larry D Gruppen  5 , Nasim Khajavirad  6
Affiliations

Development and validation of conflict management attitude questionnaire for medical students

Fatemeh Mohseni et al. BMC Med Educ. .

Abstract

Background: Medical students should effectively manage conflicts in teamwork and communication with other team members. This study aimed to develop and validate a tool to evaluate attitude of medical students and physicians toward conflict management.

Method: A multi-step process was employed to develop and validate a Conflict Management Attitude Questionnaire (CMAQ) based on the steps recommended in AMEE Guide No. 87. First, the initial items were obtained from the literature review and focus group. After cognitive interviews with the medical students and revision of the questionnaire, content validity was performed by experts. The construct validity and reliability of the questionnaire were assessed using exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Cronbach's alpha coefficient, respectively.

Results: This multi-step process resulted in a 12-item, five-point Likert-type questionnaire with satisfactory construct validity. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three factors, comprising the four items from the "perceived interactions in conflict management" subscale loading on the first factor, and five items from the "perceived value of learning conflict management" subscale loading on the second factor, along with three items from the "perceived application of conflict management" subscale loading on the third factor. All subscales described 56.48% of the variance. Validation results showed that Content Validity Index (CVI) and Content Validity Ratio (CVR) were greater than 0.75. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.791.

Conclusion: This study showed that CMAQ has valid evidence for assessing the attitude of medical students toward conflict management with favorable psychometric properties and strong evidence of construct validity. However, due to the lack of evidence on any specific questionnaire to evaluate the attitude towards conflict management, future studies should conduct a confirmatory investigation regarding other aspects of medical students' attitudes toward conflict management.

Keywords: Conflict management; Development of questionnaire; Medical students; Psychometric.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The steps of instrument development and validation
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Scree plot of the extracted items of the questionnaire
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Wang W, Ting S. Development of a computational simulation model for conflict management in team building. Int J Eng Bus Manag. 2011;3:14. doi: 10.5772/50932. - DOI
    1. Chan JC, Sit EN, Lau W. Conflict management styles, emotional intelligence and implicit theories of personality of nursing students: A cross-sectional study. Nurse Educ Today. 2014;34(6):934–939. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2013.10.012. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lee L, Berger DH, Awad SS, Brandt ML, Martinez G, Brunicardi FC. Conflict resolution: practical principles for surgeons. World J Surg. 2008;32(11):2331–2335. doi: 10.1007/s00268-008-9702-x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Pavlakis A, Kaitelidou D, Theodorou M, Galanis P, Sourtzi P, Siskou O. Conflict management in public hospitals: the Cyprus case. Int Nurs Rev. 2011;58(2):242–248. doi: 10.1111/j.1466-7657.2011.00880.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cox KB. The effects of unit morale and interpersonal relations on conflict in the nursing unit. J Adv Nurs. 2001;35(1):17–25. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2648.2001.01819.x. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources