Development and preliminary psychometric properties of the Scale of Health Belief Model for Sleep

Abstract Background Sleep-related problems are a serious risk to physical and emotional health, academic success, and safety in adolescents. A measurement tool is needed to comprehensively evaluate adolescents’ sleep and plan the steps necessary for behavioral change. This study aimed to develop a scale based on the Health Belief Model that can reliably and validly evaluate adolescent individuals’ beliefs towards sleep. Methods This methodological study was conducted with 494 adolescents between September and October 2022 in Antalya, Turkey. Initially, 81 items about sleep were created according to the Health Belief Model. Validity was assessed as content and construct validity and reliability was assessed as internal consistency. Content validity was evaluated with ten expert views The scale was tested for construct validity with Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), after which the scale’s reliability was evaluated for item-total correlations using Pearson’s correlation analysis and for internal consistency with Cronbach’s Alpha. Results In the first EFA, sixteen factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 explained 63.80% of the total variance. Items with factor loadings of less than .30 and those that appeared in more than one factor with differences of less than %10 were removed from the scale one by one and the analysis was repeated. In the last EFA of the 46-item scale, six factors were found with an eigenvalue greater than 1 that explained 57.7 % of the total variance. The scale’s item-total correlations ranged between .26 - .79. Cronbach’s coefficient alpha of subscales was found .92 for perceived susceptibility, .90 for perceived severity, .90 for perceived benefits, .81 for self-efficacy, .79 for motivation and .69 for perceived barriers. Conclusions The validity and reliability properties of the scale of Health Belief Model for sleep have been found good levels in Adolescents. Its intercultural adaptation for use with adolescents in other countries is recommended. Key messages • The newly developed the scale of Health Belief Model for sleep was found to be valid and reliable. • It can be used to assess adolescents’ beliefs about sleep.