Development and psychometric testing of the attitude toward potential pregnancy scale.

OBJECTIVE

To develop and test a comprehensive tool for measuring women's attitudes toward the possibility of becoming pregnant.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional mixed methods study.

SETTING

Two obstetric/gynecologic (OB/GYN) clinics and one family planning clinic in Baltimore, Maryland.

PARTICIPANTS

One-hundred thirty (130) nonpregnant, primarily African American women (84%) age 18 to 29.

METHODS

Participants completed a computer-based survey as part of a larger retrospective mixed-methods study. The Attitude Toward Potential Pregnancy Scale (APPS) was assessed using exploratory factor analysis and hypothesis testing.

RESULTS

Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency for the APPS was 0.86. Item-total correlations ranged from 0.56 to 0.75. All items loaded on one factor. Support for construct validity was demonstrated using logistic regression, where the odds of being a highly effective contraceptive user decreased by 8% with each one-point increase in score on the APPS (odds ratio = 0.92; confidence interval [0.87, 0.98]).

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides support for reliability and validity of the APPS. The APPS may be a useful tool for understanding pregnancy attitude in future studies and in clinical practice. Further research is needed to assess the usefulness of the scale with other groups of women, its utility in the clinical practice setting, and its potential predictive validity for unintended pregnancy.