Assessment of Judgmental Validity of the Sinhala Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) Scale

Sri Lanka lacks a suitable psychometric tool to assess water insecurity effectively. To address this issue, in the present study, the Household Water Insecurity Experiences (HWISE) scale was translated into Sinhala language and tested for its face and content validity. Using established guidelines, first, face validity was evaluated with the participation of two subject matter experts (SMEs). Then, Cohen’s Kappa statistic (CKS) was calculated to obtain the inter- rater reliability to establish face validity. Second, the Delphi process was conducted with five SMEs to assess the content validity of the Sinhala HWISE scale. Subsequently, the Content Validity Index (CVI) for individual items (I-CVI), the overall scale (S-CVI), and S-CVI/UA (Universal Agreement) were utilized to quantify the output of the Delphi process. The results indicated that the HWISE scale was content valid based on the results of Delphi and S-CVI, while the I-CVI and S-CVI/UA indicated some departure from the expected thresholds. Fleiss Kappa Statistic (FKS) revealed minor inconsistencies in the quantified opinions of the SMEs in the Delphi process, which indirectly impacted I-CVI and S-CVI/UA. Overall, the HWISE scale has met satisfactory face and content validity. Keywords: Content validity index; Delphi process; Kappa statistic; Water insecurity; Classical test theory