Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Epilepsy Self-Management Scale for Teachers

Abstract

This study was conducted to develop a measurement tool to achieve epilepsy self-management in teachers and examine its Turkish psychometric properties. This descriptive, comparative, correlational, and methodological study was conducted between May and August 2022 with 346 teachers between the ages of 24 and 67 working in public schools selected by simple random sampling method among the primary schools in the province where the research was conducted. In the descriptive data analysis, numbers, percentages, and averages were used in the psychometric analysis of the scale, content validity analysis, factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, item-total correlation, and split-half method. The average age of the teachers included in the study was 31.14 + 2.27, of which 68% (n = 234) were women. In total, 90% of the teachers (n = 312) stated that they did not have the correct intervention information about epilepsy. The scale, which is a 5-point Likert type, consists of 23 items and three subdimensions. The scale's total Cronbach's alpha coefficient is 0.83, and the subdimension Cronbach's alpha values are, respectively, the first subdimension is 0.78, the second subdimension is 0.91, and the third subdimension is 0.65. Item-total score correlations ranged between 0.31 and 0.81 (p < 0.05). As a result of the exploratory factor analysis found that the three-dimensional scale explained 42% of the total variance, and the item factor loads varied between 0.38 and 0.89. As a result of the confirmatory factor analysis, the fit indices were > 0.90, and the RMSEA value was < 0.08. The primary purpose of this study is to develop the Epilepsy Self-Management Scale for Teachers.