A reliable instrument based on the Expectancy-Value Model of Attitude was developed using responses of 30 parents to assess parental attitudes toward the intensive care unit admission of children. The instrument was then administered to 50 parents whose children were in the intensive care unit to examine relationships between parents' previous experiences/knowledge and their attitudes/expectations about their child's critical illness outcome. Qualitative and quantitative data analysis demonstrated that parents' attitudes toward the event of their child's admission and parents' expectations for their child's illness outcome were influenced by previous knowledge of similar situations, previous exposure to intensive care units, and previous knowledge of similar illnesses. Knowledge of factors associated with the development of parental attitude is essential to the development of models that can be tested for predictive validity. Such models may eventually assist in identifying parents who are at risk and in need of intervention. Further studies to assess the reliability and validity of the instrument in other populations is warranted.
The Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) was used to develop an instrument to measure antecedents of parental behavior. The subjects, a convenience sample of 10 parents of high-risk newborns were interviewed 24 to 36 hours after their infant's admission to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Likert and semantic differential scales (Osgood, Suci & Tannenbaum, 1956) were developed based on salient themes identified from the qualitative analysis of the interview transcripts to measure parents': (a) attitudes, (b) social norms, (c) previous experiences and (d) expectations. The instrument was evaluated on 30 parents using a repeated measures design. Results reflect the reliability and validity of the instrument, an emerging model of antecedents of parent's behavior and the presence of differences in antecedents of parent's behavior.
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