Developing a scale: Adolescents’ health choices related rights, duties and responsibilities

Abstract

Background: Adolescents’ health choices have been widely researched, but the ethical basis of these choices, namely their rights, duties, and responsibilities, have been disregarded and scale is required to measure these. Objective: To describe the development of a scale that measures adolescents’ rights, duties, and responsibilities in relation to health choices and document the preliminary scale testing. Research design: A multi-phase development method was used to construct the Health Rights Duties and Responsibilities ( HealthRDR) scale. The concepts and content were defined through document analysis, a systematic literature review, and focus groups. The content validity and clarity of the items were evaluated by expert panel of 23 adolescents, school nurses, and researchers. We calculated the content validity index and the content validity ratio at on item and scale levels. Preliminary testing was conducted with 200 adolescents aged 15–16 years. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha correlation, and statistics for the item-analysis were calculated. Ethical considerations: Ethical approval and permission were obtained according to national legislation and responsible research practice was followed. Informed consent was obtained from the participants and the parents were informed about the study. Findings: The Health Rights Duties and Responsibilities scale comprises of four sub-scales with 148 items: 15 on health choices, 36 on rights, 47 on duties, and 50 on responsibilities. The items had a 0.93 content validity index and a 0.85 content validity ratio. Cronbach’s alpha correlation coefficient was 0.99 for the total scale and the individual sub-scales scores were health choices (0.93), rights (0.97), responsibilities (0.99), and duties (0.98). Discussion: The findings are discussed in light of the ethical concepts and validity and reliability of the developed scale. Conclusion: The Health Rights Duties and Responsibilities scale defines and understands adolescents’ rights, duties, and responsibilities in relation to health choices and has good content validity. Further testing and refinement of the concepts are needed.

How Adolescents and Parents See Their Moral Responsibilities With Regard to Adolescents Using Alcohol—A Deductive Secondary Analysis

“…Understanding these responsibilities and incorporating them into school health care can improve the support that adolescents receive about healthy and positive choices. 15,55,56 This study provides new knowledge about how adolescents and parents perceived their responsibilities when it came to adolescents using alcohol. We hope that our findings could help global school health care services when they are planning, implementing and monitoring health promotion campaigns that focus on adolescents' health and well-being.…”

“…13 Their parents and home lives also continue to play a major role for adolescents. 14,15 Parents are responsible for safeguarding and promoting their child's well-being, 16 and they focus on education, 17 decision-making and caring for their child. 18 Parents' socioeconomic status, attitudes, and educational background have been shown to affect the choices that adolescents make about using alcohol.…”

“…29,30 The views of adolescents and parents about responsibilities form part of a topical research subject with ethical justifications. 15,23,31 The aim of this study was to describe how adolescents and parents saw their moral responsibilities with regard to adolescents using alcohol and how these responsibilities were related to each other.…”

“…Discussions with adults about moral and legal perspectives may stop adolescents from starting to use alcohol 7 . Adolescents have described their responsibilities as measures taken to promote their own health, or other people's health, including avoiding substances and alcohol 15,26 . Studies have reported that adolescents who stuck to their personal moral rules felt that intoxication was wrong 7,27 and their peers found it hard to influence them 27 .…”

“… 7 Adolescents have described their responsibilities as measures taken to promote their own health, or other people's health, including avoiding substances and alcohol. 15 , 26 Studies have reported that adolescents who stuck to their personal moral rules felt that intoxication was wrong 7 , 27 and their peers found it hard to influence them. 27 Parents have said that they were responsible for providing guidance, monitoring and protection, setting rules, and providing information to ensure that adolescents avoided the harmful effects of using alcohol.…”