Preliminary Development and Testing of Instruments to Measure Self-care Agency and Social Support of Women in Taiwan

The purpose of this study was to adapt and test the reliability and validity of the Personal Resource Questionnaire 85-Part 2 (PRQ85-Part 2) and Exercise of Self-Care Agency Scale (ESCA) for women in Taiwan. Using a 3-phase study, the instruments were first translated into Chinese, back translated into English, and examined for content validity. In the second phase, the Chinese versions of the instruments were administered to 30 women, aged 60 to 75 years, and 34 women, aged 22 to 38 years. Modifications were made in the wording of items to make them more meaningful for the older women. In phase three, the instruments were administered to 284 women, 60 to 88 years of age. Indices of content validity were 1.0 for both the PRQ85-Part 2 and ESCA. Alpha reliability coefficients ranged from .84 to .90 for the PRQ85-Part 2 and from .86 to .92 for the ESCA. A test-retest reliability coefficient after one week was .80 for the PRQ85-Part 2 and .91 for the ESCA. The findings of this study indicate that both instruments are culturally appropriate for use with women in Taiwan.