Developing the Menstrual Myths Attitude Scale.

Abstract

Background: Menstrual myths include practices that negatively impact women's health. Knowing attitudes toward menstrual myths is essential for protecting and improving women's health. However, there are limited measurement tools available to determine attitudes toward menstrual myths. Methods: This study is a methodological scale development study conducted between October 2021 and January 2023 to determine individuals' attitudes towards menstrual myths. For this purpose, the scale items prepared by making use of the literature were shaped with expert opinions, pre-application was made, and data were collected from a total of 337 women through a questionnaire and validity analyses, including exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and reliability analyses (Cronbach's alpha), were also performed. Results: The final version of the scale included 20 items under 5 subscales (menstrual information, menstrual stigmatization, menstrual privacy, menstrual hygiene, menstruation education). Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.79 for the whole scale. EFA revealed five factors explaining 52.074% of the total variance. CFA confirmed a good model fit: χ² = 2876.480; df = 496, p < 0.05; X²/sd = 1.655; RMSEA = 0.044, AGFI = 0.910, IFI = 0.928, TLI = 0.913, GFI = 0.932, and CFI = 0.927. Cronbach's alpha was 0.790 for the total scale. Conclusions: The Attitude Towards Menstrual Myths scale is a valid and reliable tool for determining women's attitudes toward menstrual myths. It is recommended that further testing be conducted for use by different groups, men and gender-neutral individuals.