Developing and validating the Psychosocial Burden among people Seeking Abortion Scale (PB-SAS).

ABSTRACT: While there is a large body of research demonstrating that having an abortion is not associated with adverse mental health outcomes, less research has examined which factors may contribute to elevated levels of mental health symptoms at the time of abortion seeking. This study aims to develop and validate a new tool to measure dimensions of psychosocial burden experienced by people seeking abortion in the United States. To develop scale items, we reviewed the literature including existing measures of stress and anxiety and conducted interviews with experts in abortion care and with patients seeking abortion. Thirty-five items were administered to 784 people seeking abortion at four facilities located in three U.S. states. We used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to reduce items and identi

SUBMITTER: Biggs MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7728247 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature