Development and Validation of the Attitude Towards Surrogacy Scale in a Turkiye Sample

Abstract

Bacground: Surrogacy is one of the options a lot of ethical, legal and psychological controversy. Surveying attitudes toward surrogacy plays an important role in building awareness of this phenomenon in the society. In this study authors aimed to develop and validate a scale to assess the attitudes towards surrogacy. Methods: In this study cross-sectional design was implemented. Development process of the Attitude towards Surrogacy Scale (ATSS) included items development based on literature reviews, other existing questionnaires, confrmatory factor analysis (CFA), and reliability analysis using internal consistence coefcients. A total of 272 people residing in Büyükçekmece and Beylikdüzü districts of Istanbul were included in the study. Firstly, conceptual structure and item pool were created for the draft scale created by the researchers. Then, the question pool was submitted to expert opinion. After the expert opinion, a pilot study was applied to the statements in the draft scale. After the test-retest reliability was performed, the data collection phase started. Participants who agreed to participate in the study were reached both face-to-face and online. Convenience sampling method was used to reach the participants. Results: IBM SPSS and IBM AMOS package programmes were used to analyse the data obtained within the scope of the study. In the data analysis, firstly, item analysis was performed for internal consistency reliability. After this stage, structural validity analysis was used. As a result of the analysis, a measurement tool consisting of 4 dimensions and 24 statements expressed as “positive impact, negative impact, legal impact and economic impact” was developed. It has been statistically determined that this measurement tool is valid and reliable. Conclusion: The results obtained show that the scale developed for the perception of surrogacy has validity and reliability. Therefore, the “scale developed for the perception of surrogacy” can be used to measure the perception of surrogacy of people in our country.