French translation and preliminary psychometric validation of a skin-to-skin contact instrument for nurses (SSC-F)

Purpose To translate and conduct the preliminary psychometric validation of a skin-to-skin contact instrument in French (SSC-F) with a sample of nurses from Quebec and France working in neonatal intensive care units. Methods The 20 items of the SSC instrument containing four subscales (knowledge, attitudes and beliefs, training and education and implementation), developed by Vittner et al. (2017), was translated into French. The methodological steps used for psychometric validation included assessment of the item and subscale normality distributions, assessment of reliability using internal consistency, and assessment of validity using inter-item and inter-scale correlations and principal component analysis. Results The preliminary psychometric validation showed that all four subscales of the French version had adequate internal consistency (0.61-0.77), supporting the calculation of a total score for each subscale based on the English version of the instrument. The structural validity was supported by principal component analysis findings. Practice Implications Based on the findings of the preliminary psychometric validation of our study, the SSC-F instrument could be used in research with French-speaking neonatal nurses in Western countries, but gathering more evidence about its reliability and validity is warranted for clinical practice.