| Summary: | The purpose of this study was to develop and test an instrument that would reliably measure women's attitudes towards mode of delivery. The technique chosen for attitude measurement was a semantic differential. Cesarean and vaginal deliveries were rated using bipolar adjectives separated by a seven point scale. The adjectival pairs represented four factors; evaluation, potency, activity and anxiety-stress.
The instrument was completed by 202 women who were attending prenatal
classes in the Greater Vancouver area. Analysis indicated that Cesarean delivery and vaginal delivery occupy separate positions in a semantic space. This is reflective of differences in women's attitudes towards the two modes of delivery. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the factors evaluation and anxiety-stress are the most relevant predictors
of women's attitudes towards mode of delivery; they accounted for at least 94 percent of the variance of the scores for each mode.
The reliability of the factors evaluation and anxiety-stress for both Cesarean delivery and vaginal delivery was substantial. Concurrent validity of the Cesarean delivery category was indicated and the instrument is considered to have content validity.
A semantic differential technique was useful in measuring women's attitudes towards Cesarean delivery and vaginal delivery. Further refinement
of the instrument could yield an efficient and reliable assessment measure. === Applied Science, Faculty of === Nursing, School of === Graduate
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