The Female Self-Advocacy in Cancer Survivorship Scale: A validation study

To develop and psychometrically test the validity of the Female Self-Advocacy in Cancer Survivorship Scale.

Female cancer survivors need to self-advocate to overcome challenges associated with cancer yet no valid measure of self-advocacy exists.

Instrument development. Mixed-mode cross-sectional survey design.

We recruited adult females (18+ years; N = 317) with a history of invasive cancer from local and national tumour registries and advocacy organizations to complete online or paper questionnaires.

Between July 2014 - March 2015 to evaluate the construct validity based on evidence of the scale's: (1) internal structure consistent with the underlying model of self-advocacy; (2) sensitivity to differences between groups known to differ in self-advocacy skills; (3) relationships between self-advocacy and key potential predictors (openness and conscientiousness; information engagement; social support) and outcomes (symptom burden and healthcare utilization); (4) relationships between self-advocacy and related concepts (patient activation; self-advocacy within another patient population); and (5) relationships between self-advocacy and criterion measures. Analyses included an exploratory factor analysis, t tests, and bivariate correlations using validated, reliable measures for constructs.

Evidence from all five hypotheses supported the construct validity of the Female Self-Advocacy in Cancer Survivorship Scale. The factor analysis confirmed the three underlying dimensions of self-advocacy resulting in a 20-item measure with strong internal consistency that explained almost half of response variance.

The Female Self-Advocacy in Cancer Survivorship Scale is a valid, reliable measure of how well adult female cancer survivors can get their needs met in the face of adversity.