Scale Development
First of all, a literature review was conducted regarding the deck-chair
theory developed by Jean Ball about the emotional well-being of mothers.
Based on this theory, a theoretical framework was established so that
the items of the scale would be gathered under 3 conceptual frameworks
(personality and experiences of the mother, social support, and
healthcare and
education).5,8,12,13,15-17To find publications about the emotional well-being of mothers, key
phrases such as “personality of a mother”, “experiences of a
mother”, “social support”, “health education”, “healthcare”,
“emotional well-being of a mother”, and “deck-chair theory” were
used for searches on the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Scopus, and Google
Scholar databases. Dissertation studies on this topic and existing
measurement instruments were also searched. No measurement instrument
developed within a theoretical framework regarding the emotional
well-being of mothers was encountered. Information about the topic was
collected by the researchers, and a broad item pool (39 items) was
prepared.
In the second stage, the initial form of the scale (instructions, items,
response options) was submitted for the opinions of 16 experts regarding
its relevance, comprehensiveness, comprehensibility, and convenience of
usage. The consulted experts included 4 professors, 5 associate
professors, and 7 assistant professors who specialized in the field of
midwifery. The experts were asked to rate each item based on how much it
represented the emotional well-being of mothers in the scope of the
deck-chair theory by Jean Ball and provide written feedback, if
necessary, about words that were considered hard to understand or issues
that were considered missing.
In the third stage, the content validity of the scale was tested. The
initial form of the scale included 39 items. During the content validity
testing phase, no item needed to be removed based on the recommendations
of the experts.