Development and psychometric properties of the sleep problems and coping with sleep problem scales for pregnant women

The aim of this study is to develop a sleep problems scale and a coping with sleep problems scale for pregnant women and assess their reliability and validity.

An empirical research quantitative design.

Self-reported instruments were developed through (1) item generation, (2) preliminary item evaluation and (3) scale refining and evaluation. Item pools were created via literature review, opinions of experts and women with experience in pregnancy sleep. Content, construct and criterion validities were tested. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha, split-half reliability and corrected item-total correlation.

Data were collected between January 23 and July 22, 2020, at a hospital's obstetrics polyclinic. In the pilot and main study, 30 and 368 pregnant women (gestational age: 8-42 weeks) were included, respectively.

The content validity index was >0.9 for each scale. Factor analysis showed 24 and 18 items in the two scales, both with four subdimensions. The corrected item-total correlations were acceptable, and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.883 and 0.799, respectively.

Both scales developed in this study are valid and reliable for the Turkish society. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION AND/OR PATIENT CARE/GLOBAL CLINICAL COMMUNITY: This study's findings may prevent the lack of validated screening instruments to identify pregnancy-specific sleep features.

We developed two scales to assess sleep problems in pregnant women. These were valid and reliable, can be routinely used by health professionals and may guide nurses and midwives in assessing and managing sleep problems during pregnancy.

The study conforms to the COSMIN checklist.

Data were collected during face-to-face surveys. Ten women contributed to the item pool generation, 30 pregnant women participated in the pilot study, and 368 antenatal service users participated in the main study.