Chinese version of the labour ward job satisfaction scale for midwives: translation, cultural adaptation and psychometric validation

Midwives’ job satisfaction is essential to guarantee maternal and infant delivery safety and improve the quality of midwifery services. Along with the transformation of childbirth models and the rapid development of midwifery specialty, there is a lack of clinically applicable assessment instruments with rigorous psychometric validation tailored to domestic labour ward settings in China, which impedes accurate evaluation of current job satisfaction among labour ward midwives. This study aimed to translate and conduct cross-cultural adaptation of the English translation of the original Spanish scale version Labour Ward Job Satisfaction Scale for Midwives (LWJSS-M), and evaluate the psychometric properties of its Chinese version. This cross-sectional methodological study was conducted from March to May 2026 across 23 hospitals in Jiangxi and Hubei Provinces, China. A total of 456 midwives were recruited via convenience sampling for questionnaire investigation. Following Brislin’s translation guidelines, the English translation of the original Spanish scale Labour Ward Job Satisfaction Scale for Midwives (LWJSS-M) was translated into Chinese through forward translation, back-translation and cross-cultural adaptation procedures. Subsequently, psychometric properties of the Chinese version were tested. Construct validity was examined by exploratory factor analysis (EFA, Group A, n = 228) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA, Group B, n = 228). Convergent validity, discriminant validity, internal consistency, split-half reliability and test-retest reliability were assessed in the present study. The Chinese version of the Labour Ward Job Satisfaction Scale for Midwives contained 37 items distributed across 5 dimensions. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) extracted five factors, accounting for a cumulative explained variance of 60.072%. The overall Cronbach’s α coefficient of the scale was 0.936, and the Cronbach’s α values for each dimension ranged from 0.889 to 0.932; the split-half reliability was 0.791, and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC, test-retest reliability) was 0.957. The scale-level content validity index (S-CVI) reached 0.993. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) yielded satisfactory model fit indices: CMIN/DF = 1.107, CFI = 0.986, TLI = 0.985, RMSEA = 0.022, SRMR = 0.042. The Chinese version of the Labour Ward Job Satisfaction Scale for Midwives has sound psychometric properties. This scale can effectively measure job satisfaction among Chinese labour ward midwives and serves as a reliable instrument for nursing administrators to conduct relevant assessments.