Preliminary evaluation of a nursing student attachment questionnaire: Reliability and validity
Dale M Hilty and Rosanna Bumgardner
Ohio State University, USA
: J Nurs Patient Care
Abstract
Aim: The purpose of this educational intervention was to design a questionnaire that would measure attachment styles, that could be applied to the professional relationships between nursing students and their patients. Methods: A quantitative instrument (i.e., Nursing Attachment Styles Questionnaire; NASQ) was designed with 33 items with 11 items measuring secure, anxious, and avoidant attachment styles. The participants (N=247) were BSN nursing students. Hypothesis 1: Determine whether attachment measured with the NASQ items would be a multi-dimensional construct (i.e., two or more common factors). This hypothesis would be tested by using exploratory principal axis factor analysis (EPAFA). Hypothesis 2: Determine if the reliability estimate(s) would be greater than .80 for engagement common factors. Hypothesis 3: Evaluate the correlation coefficients among the NAQ, AAQ, and MAQ attachment styles. Findings: Hypothesis 1: Undergraduate BSN nursing students (N=247) responses were analyzed via principle axis factor analysis with a oblimin rotation. Three common factors (secure, anxious, avoidant) accounted for 64% of the variance (eigenvalues = 12.455, 5.71, 2.963). Hypothesis 2: Each of the theoretically designed items loaded on the respective common factors. Coefficient alpha reliability estimates were .93 (secure), .933 (anxious), and .947 (avoidant). Hypothesis 3: Correlations coefficients among the NAQ, AAQ, and MAQ common factors are presented in the table below. Discussion: The factor analysis findings of three common factors offer initial construct validity support for the NASQ. Reliability estimates were greater than .80. Correlation coefficients between NASQ and MAQ secure were .678, among NASQ, AAQ, and MAQ anxious were .584 and .523, and among NASQ, AAQ, and MAQ avoidant were .362 and. 411. Conclusions: The statistical analysis of the questionnaire designed to measure the secure, anxious, and avoidant attachment styles for nursing students resulted in some promising findings. Previous instrumentation (Carver, 1997; Simpson, 1990) measured attachment style in significant other relationships. The 33 items (i.e., 11 questions per attachment style) may allow researchers to assess attachment style in professional relationships.
Biography
Dale M Hilty, Associate Professor, received his PhD in counseling psychology from Department of Psychology at the Ohio State University. He has published studies in the areas of psychology, sociology, and religion. Between April 2017 and April 2018, his ten research teams published 55 posters at local, state, regional, national, and international nursing conferences.
E-mail: dhilty@mccn.edu
