Background The Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale (IIFAS) is a widely used tool to assess attitudes towards infant feeding. Attitudes towards breastfeeding are one of the main influencing factors of feeding choice and breastfeeding duration. Adaptation of the IIFAS to the Hungarian context provides an opportunity for cross-cultural comparisons and helps to target breastfeeding support interventions. The growing number of shortened scales in various fields of research, demonstrates the necessity to adapt to a changing context of data collection to avoid fatigue and dropout among respondents. However, international comparisons are difficult due to the lack of a consensual shortened form of the scale. The aim of our study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Hungarian version of the IIFAS (IIFAS-H) and propose an 8-item short version that has appropriate construct validity. Methods The original IIFAS was translated into Hungarian and then translated back to English. A cross-sectional study based on an internet survey in 2019 was conducted among 553 mothers whose most recent child’s age was between 6 and 36 months. Psychometric properties of the Hungarian IIFAS were determined and compared with international results. In order to obtain a shorter version of the Hungarian scale, we preferably kept those items that are common with other international abbreviated IIFAS versions and deleted items with a corrected item-total correlation or factor loading of less than 0.3, where factor loadings came from a principal component analysis forcing the extraction of one principal component (factor). Results The 17-item IIFAS-H showed good psychometric properties with a Cronbach’s alpha of0.73. Further analyses proved that the examined three shortened versions of the IIFAS consisting of 11, 9, and 8 items also showed good properties (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.79, 0.79, 0.76, respectively). Conclusions The Hungarian version of the original 17-item long IIFAS proved to be a good measurement tool with good psychometric properties. Based on our analyses, we suggest the use of the 8-item short version (IIFAS-H8) of the scale.
Objectives: Infancy in 21st Century Hungary is the first Hungarian national representative parent survey to examine early childhood mental health problems and important individual, family and broader environmental risk and protective factors associated with them. Methods: In the study, families raising children aged 3–36 months were included. The sample was nationally representative according to the children’s age and gender, and the type of residence. Data were collected in the winter of 2019–2020 from 980 mothers and 122 fathers. The parents were interviewed using a CAPI (computer-assisted personal interview) instrument at first, and then they filled out a self-administered questionnaire (SAQ). The measurement package was planned by an interdisciplinary research network coordinated by the Institute of Mental Health at Semmelweis University, while the sampling and the data collection were conducted by the TÁRKI Research Institute. Results: Based on the parental reports, we will examine the prevalence of infant and early childhood mental health problems perceived by the parents, and the relationships between the background variables measured in several ecological levels. Due to the representative sample’s socio-demographic diversity, we can map the generalizable variability of each examined construct and identify risk and protective factors behind the perceived developmental and mental health difficulties. Conclusions: In this article, the policy, theoretical and methodological framework, the justification and objectives of the research, and the measurement package are presented.
Background: The Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale (IIFAS) is a widely used tool to assess attitudes toward infant feeding methods. Attitudes toward breastfeeding are one of the main influencing factors of feeding choice and breastfeeding duration. Adaptation of IIFAS to Hungarian provides an opportunity for cross-cultural comparisons and helps targeting breastfeeding support interventions.Methods: The original IIFAS was translated into Hungarian and back-translated to English. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 553 mothers whose latest child’s age was between 6 and 36 months. In addition to the Hungarian IIFAS, infant feeding status and socioeconomic properties were self-reported in the online survey. Psychometric properties, validity and internal consistency were determined and compared with international results.Results: The 17 item IIFAS-H showed good psychometric properties with that of Cronbach alpha=0.733. Further analyses proved that two shortened versions of the IIFAS-17 consisting of 11 and 9 items also showed good properties (Cronbach’s alpha=0.789, 0.787). After comparing our results to the international short versions of IIFAS, we found that they share 8 identical items. These common 8 items have similar good properties with the Cronbach’s alpha=0.763.Conclusions: The benefits of possible use of international comparisons of the 8-item version outweigh its slightly lower reliability compared to the 9 or 11-item versions. Based on our analyses, we suggest the use of the 8-item-long, shortened version (IIFAS-H8) of the scale.
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