Mothers' attitudes toward adolescent confidential services: development and validation of scales for use in English- and Spanish-speaking populations.
OBJECTIVE
To explore parental beliefs and attitudes about confidential services for their teenagers; and to develop an instrument to assess these beliefs and attitudes that could be used among English and Spanish speakers. The long-term goal is to use this research to better understand and evaluate interventions to improve parental knowledge and attitudes toward their adolescent's access and utilization of comprehensive confidential health services.


METHODS
The instrument was developed using an extensive literature review and theoretical framework followed by qualitative data from focus groups and in-depth interviews. It was then pilot tested with a random sample of English- and Spanish-speaking parents and further revised. The final instrument was administered to a random sample of 1,000 mothers. The psychometric properties of the instrument were assessed for Spanish and English speakers.


RESULTS
The instrument consisted of 12 scales. Most Cronbach alphas were >.70 for Spanish and English speakers. Fewer items for Spanish speakers "loaded" for the Responsibility and Communication scales. Parental Control of Health Information failed for Spanish speakers.


CONCLUSIONS
The Parental Attitudes of Adolescent Confidential Health Services Questionnaire (PAACS-Q) contains 12 scales and is a valid and reliable instrument to assess parental knowledge and attitudes toward confidential health services for adolescents among English speakers and all but one scale was applicable for Spanish speakers. More research is needed to understand key constructs with Spanish speakers.
Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California. Electronic address: Tebbk@peds.ucsf.edu.
Kathleen P
KP
Tebb
Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
Lance M
LM
Pollack
Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
Shana
S
Millstein
Institute for Health and Aging, Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California.
Regina
R
Otero-Sabogal
Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco, California.
Charles J
CJ
Wibbelsman
D000293:Adolescent; D016497:Adolescent Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D001290:Attitude; D002140:California; D003219:Confidentiality; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D044465:White People
Adolescent health; Confidentiality; Instrument development; Parental attitudes; Spanish and English speakers