| dc.description.abstract | Background and Objective: Assertiveness is a crucial skill in the nursing profession to reinforce
interprofessional relationships, prevent workplace violence, reduce work stress, improve
professional efficacy, develop leadership skills, autonomy and job satisfaction. Assertiveness
when inculcated among nursing students will immensely contribute to their professional
development and a sustainable career. Since no standard tools are available to measure
assertiveness among Sinhala speaking students, this study is aimed to cross-culturally adapt the
Sinhala version of Begley and Glacken’s Assertiveness Scale among nursing students in Sri Lanka.
Methods: Permission to translate, cross-culturally adapt and use the 28-item Begley and
Glackens’ Assertiveness Scale were obtained from its developers. The content and consensual
validity of translated version was assessed with a two round Delphi process using five experts
and a consensus evaluation. If 70% or more of the ratings for an item are in categories 0-3 the
item was removed or reworded. The process was repeated for the reworded items and those were
retained if 70% or more of the ratings were in categories 4-6 and /or 7-9. Subsequently, Content
Validity Index (CVI) was evaluated using I-CVI, Universal Agreement (S-CVI/UA) and
Average CVI (S-CVI/Ave). Finally, the scale’s reliability was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha
in a randomized sample of 140 nursing undergraduates from the University of Colombo.
Results: All the items in category 4-6 and 7-9 were retained. Sinhala version of the assertiveness
scale showed maximum CVI of all individual items (I-CVI=1.0) and maximum overall CVI
(S-CVI/UA = 1.0; S-CVI/Ave = 1.0). The reliability analysis indicated Cronbach’s alpha of 0.753.
Conclusions: The Sinhalese version of the Begley and Glacken’s assertiveness scale is a culturally
adapted, valid and reliable instrument to measure assertiveness among nursing students. | en_US |
