Psychometric Assessment of the Validity of the Iranian Version of Attitude Toward Fertility and Childbearing Inventory in Women without a History of Pregnancy in the South of Iran

Background and Aim: Delays in childbearing, in addition to creating health risks for the mother and the child, may lead to permanent parental bereavement. The purpose of this study was psychometric assessment of the validity and reliability of the Iranian version of attitude toward reproductive and childbearing inventory (ATRCI) in women without a history of pregnancy. Materials and Methods: This study was done on 235 women without a history of pregnancy selected by multi-stage sampling in the South of Iran. They completed a fertility and childbearing attitude questionnaire. The validity and reliabilty of the ATRCI were determined using SPSS-16 software, the statitical tests being Cronbach's alpha coefficient and exploratory factor analysis. Results: The mean age of the women was 24.47 ± 4.1 years, and the Cronbach's alpha total coefficient was 0.888. The KMO and Bartlett's test of sphericity value (0.890) was  significant. In this study, in addition to the main components of the questionnaire, the childbirth postponement component was also extracted; they explained  63.01% of the total variance related the attitude toward fertility and childbearing.  Conclusion:  The 4-component Iranian version of the attitude toward fertility and childbearing inventory was found to have acceptable psychometric validity and reliability. It is recommended that in the future studies this inventory be used in intervantional studies and heath and demographic programs for women without a history of pregnancy.