Design and Psychometrics of a Questionnaire on Factors Related to the Decision to Childbearing

Abstract

Background: In this regard, a study was conducted with the aim of designing and psychometrically evaluating a questionnaire on factors related to the decision to Childbearing. Methods: The study was cross-sectional and was conducted on 200 married women of reproductive age and some of their husbands in Isfahan. The questionnaire items were extracted and developed through a review of sources and a focus group session. The initial format of 75 questions underwent face and content validity (CVR, CVI), and the shortened format underwent construct validity, exploratory factor analysis, and reliability calculation using the Cronbach’s alpha method. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to report the data. Findings: In the content validity determination stage 42 items were eliminated and 33 items remained (acceptable CVR 0.42 and CVI 0.79). In the internal consistency assessment stage, the scores of two items did not have a significant correlation with the total score of the questionnaire and they were eliminated. In the Varimax exploratory factor analysis stage, 7 factors had eigenvalues greater than one and, explaining 69.93 of the variance, were named as follows: personal health and marital life of the couples; economic status and well-being of the couples; benefits of childbearing and expectations of the couples; security and socio-economic facilities of the place of residence; attracting support and planning of the couples in child care; health and safety of pregnancy; and values, hope and readiness of the couples for childbearing. Reliability using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was calculated as 0.869 for the entire questionnaire and ranged from 0.657 to 0.906 for the subscales. Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, the 31-item Factors Related to the Decision to Childbearing Questionnaire had favorable psychometric properties. The use of this tool is recommended to researchers and its findings are applicable for policymakers and planners in the population domain. © 2025, Isfahan University of Medical SciencesIUMS. All rights reserved.