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. 2024 Oct 11;14(4):2946-2955.
doi: 10.3390/nursrep14040215.

Psychometric Testing of an Arabic Version of the Attitude Toward Skin-to-Skin Contact Instrument among Women in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Cultural Validation Study

Abeer Hawsawi  1   2 , Ritin Fernandez  2 , Maria Mackay  3 , Ibrahim Alananzeh  4 , Abbas Al Mutair  5
Affiliations

Psychometric Testing of an Arabic Version of the Attitude Toward Skin-to-Skin Contact Instrument among Women in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Cultural Validation Study

Abeer Hawsawi et al. Nurs Rep. .

Abstract

Background/objectives: The World Health Organization recommends skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth, yet the practice rate remains low in Saudi Arabia, impacting the health and well-being of mother-baby dyads. No previous studies have explored Saudi women's attitudes toward skin-to-skin contact, a critical factor in developing strategies to increase its adoption. This study aimed to develop and evaluate an instrument to assess attitudes toward skin-to-skin contact among women in Saudi Arabia.

Methods: An instrument was developed by modifying the validated "Mother-Newborn Skin-to-Skin Contact Questionnaire". Psychometric testing was conducted to validate the instrument through a cross-cultural survey involving 383 participants recruited from two hospitals in Saudi Arabia using a convenience sampling method. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was 0.885, indicating that the sample size was suitable for performing exploratory factor analysis.

Results: The overall Cronbach's alpha value was 0.85, reflecting adequate internal consistency of the questionnaire. The criteria of the two-factor confirmatory factor analysis were also met. The majority of women (85.6%) demonstrated a positive attitude towards skin-to-skin contact. A positive correlation was observed between higher educational levels and the total attitude score (r = 0.161, p = 0.002).

Conclusions: The developed questionnaire is a reliable tool for measuring attitudes towards skin-to-skin contact among women in Saudi Arabia. The findings highlight the importance of educational interventions to improve the uptake of this practice.

Keywords: attitude; health and well-being; nursing; psychometric testing; skin-to-skin contact.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funders had no role in the design of this study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of this manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Scree plot of the factor eigenvalues.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Confirmatory factor analysis for attitude.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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