title: Psychometric evaluation of the Offspring Cancer Needs Instrument (OCNI): an instrument to assess the psychosocial unmet needs of young people who have a parent with cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The current study sought to establish the psychometric properties of the revised Offspring Cancer Needs Instrument (OCNI) when completed by a large sample of young people impacted by parental cancer recruited from multiple settings.
  
  
  METHODS
  The psychometric properties were evaluated with 256 young people aged between 12 and 24 who had a parent or primary caregiver diagnosed with any type or stage of cancer within the last 5 years and who was still living. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted as an initial step in determining the dimensional structure of the questionnaire, and further assessment followed using Rasch analysis. Construct validity and test-retest reliability (n = 35) were also assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The final OCNI has 47 items and 7 domains: information, family issues, practical assistance, time out, feelings, support (friends) and support (other young people). There was a reasonable spread of responses across the scale for every item, and Rasch analysis results suggested that overall, respondents used the scale consistently. The retest correlation for the overall measure was 0.73. Support for construct validity was provided by the correlations between psychological distress and the OCNI domains. The internal consistency was excellent; the lowest domain Cronbach alpha is 0.89.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The OCNI is the first measure of psychosocial unmet needs which has been developed specifically for young people who have a parent with cancer. It has sound psychometric properties and will provide substantial clinical benefit in identifying the unmet needs of this population to assist with the provision of targeted supportive care services.
authors: CanTeen Australia, GPO Box 3821, Sydney, NSW 2001, Australia. Pandora.Patterson@canteen.org.au
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Patterson
authors: F E J
authors: FE
authors: McDonald
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Butow
authors: K J
authors: KJ
authors: White
authors: D S J
authors: DS
authors: Costa
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Pearce
authors: M L
authors: ML
authors: Bell
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires