Development and psychometric properties of the Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R)

The objective of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the hospital birth satisfaction scale with data from the first follow-up interview of the Birth in Brazil survey. The 11 questions of the scale were asked by telephone up to six months after discharge in a stratified random sample of 16,109 women residing in all five regions of the country. The sample was randomly divided into two halves. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was applied to the first half in order to identify the scale’s factorial structure. The scree plot suggested the scale to be one-dimensional. The EFA demonstrated a good fit of the one-dimensional model. Factor loadings were greater than 0.5 for all items, except for the mean time transpired between leaving the home and arriving at the maternity hospital, which was excluded from the next analysis. The confirmatory factor analysis applied to the sample’s second half with the remaining ten items had a good fit and the factor loadings were > 0.50 with p-values < 0.001. The associations between birth satisfaction and the external variables, the mother’s education level (standardized coefficient = 0.073; p = 0.035), private insurance (SC = 0.183; p < 0.001) and having a companion at some point during the hospitalization for labor (SC = 0.193; p = 0.001) were all as expected. There was evidence of configural and metric invariance according to type of hospital (private or public) and type of delivery (cesarean or vaginal). These results showed that the hospital birth satisfaction scale in Brazil is a one-dimensional instrument composed of ten items.

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Crisis, What Crisis? Replicability of the Key Measurement Characteristics of the Australian Version of the Birth Satisfaction Scale—Revised

International Journal of Childbirth ◽

10.1891/ijcbirth-d-20-00006 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 140-150

Author(s):

Colin R. Martin ◽

Elaine Jefford ◽

Caroline J. Hollins Martin

Keyword(s):

Sample Size ◽

Psychometric Properties ◽

Validation Study ◽

Statistical Power ◽

Medical Science ◽

Self Report ◽

Satisfaction Scale ◽

Birth Satisfaction ◽

Postnatal Women ◽

Replication Crisis

BACKGROUNDBehavioral and medical science is currently in the grip of a “replication crisis,” circumscribed by the failure to replicate a large proportion of key studies and a consequential impact on confidence in the veracity of the scientific method. Given the contemporary nature of the debate it is surprising that the psychometric properties of commonly used outcome measures have not been evaluated in this context, despite the obvious potential for the measurement characteristics of the measures themselves to be a source of error within a study.The current investigation sought to replicate the original validation study of the Australian version of the 10-item Birth Satisfaction Scale—Revised (A-BSS-R) with respect to key psychometric aspects and the issues of replicability.METHODSA replication study of all quantitative aspects of Jefford et al. (2018) with an increased sample size. Participants were a purposive sample of Australian postnatal women (n = 445).RESULTSMost key quantitative aspects of the original validation study were found to be replicable and consistent with Jefford et al. (2018), the A-BSS-R was found to have excellent psychometric properties fundamentally mirroring the measurement characteristics observed previously. However, a small number of instances of nonreplicability were found.CONCLUSIONSThe A-BSS-R is a valid and reliable measure of birth satisfaction. Replicability, at least in part, is influenced by participant group characteristics, statistical power and sample size. More focus is required on the influence of self-report measures themselves on the germane aspects of successful study replication.

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