Translation and Validation of the Nurse Caring Behavior Scale-Iranian Version for Parents

Background and Purpose: Pediatric nursing requires tools that reflect the unique nature of care provided to children and their families. Nurse caregiving behaviors are critical to patient satisfaction, quality of care, and return intentions, yet validated instruments in Persian are lacking. This study aimed to translate and psychometrically evaluate the caregiver version of the Nurse Caring Behavior Scale into the Persian language. Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional design with psychometric validation methods including exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The participants were 450 parents of hospitalized children, 15 nursing faculty, and 8 pediatric head nurses who were selected in various phases of the study. The caregiver version of the Nurse Caring Behavior Scale was translated into the Persian language via a forward-backward process. The psychometric evaluation encompassed three phases: face validity, content validity, and construct validity. Reliability was estimated through internal consistency. Results: Content validity was confirmed with an Scale-level Content Validity Index, Average method (S-CVI/Ave) of .945 and Scale-level Content Validity Index, Universal Agreement (S-CVI/AU) of .714. Exploratory factor analysis supported a single-factor structure comprising 14 items, explaining 60.7% of the variance. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed acceptable model fit (χ² divided by degrees of freedom = 2.078, root mean square error of approximation = .074), leading to the removal of one item (item 11) due to low factor loading. Reliability indices were strong: Cronbach's alpha = .925, composite reliability = .930, McDonald's omega = .930, and intraclass correlation coefficient = .885. Conclusions: The Nurse Caring Behavior Scale-Iranian version for parents demonstrated strong validity and reliability. This scale is appropriate for use in future studies among Persian-speaking parents of hospitalized children. Assessing the nurses' caring behavior according to the parents of hospitalized children can provide useful information for nursing stakeholders to evaluate the quality of their care.