Attitudes Towards the Morning-After Pill Scale (FAMPS, EAFPDS)

Abstract

The Escala de Atitudes Frente à Pílula do Dia Seguinte (EAFPDS), also known as the Female Attitudes Toward the Morning-After Pill Scale (FAMPS), is a psychometric instrument developed in 2023 by Passos et al. to assess the attitudes held by Brazilian women regarding the morning-after pill (emergency contraception). The scale development process began with an initial pool of 18 items derived from a comprehensive literature review, formulated in Brazilian Portuguese. Following expert validation and piloting, the instrument was administered to a sample of university women in Brazil. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted, resulting in a final, refined measure consisting of 7 items structured into a two-factor model. The resulting scale demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties concerning its internal consistency and reliability within the study population.

Keywords

Anxiety, Female Attitudes, Morning-after Pill Attitudes, Safety, Birth Control, Family Planning Attitudes, Reproductive Health, Sex and Gender Measures

Authors

Passos, Ádilo Lages Vieira, Leite, Ana Amábile Gabrielle Rodrigues, de Medeiros, Emerson Diógenes, de Araújo, Ludgleydson Fernandes, Couto, Ricardo Neves, da Silva, Paulo Gregório Nascimento

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Purpose

The primary purpose of the FAMPS/EAFPDS is to provide a standardized, empirically validated measure for assessing the range of attitudes—both positive and negative—that women hold toward the use of the morning-after pill. This measure is specifically designed to capture the emotional, cognitive, and safety-related perceptions surrounding emergency contraception use within the Brazilian context.

Construct

The scale measures the Female Attitudes toward the Morning-after Pill. This construct is multidimensional, encompassing the psychological and behavioral dispositions women have regarding emergency contraception. The successful two-factor structure identified during development suggests that these attitudes are primarily organized around two distinct dimensions: Anxiety (reflecting feelings of guilt, shame, and moral concerns, such as viewing the pill as abortive) and Safety (reflecting concerns about potential negative health effects, such as menstrual cycle disruption or general harmfulness).

Validity

Formal validity data, such as criterion or convergent validity, was not explicitly reported in the source material for the scale’s initial publication. The structure of the scale was established through robust content validation by expert judges and statistical confirmation via Exploratory Factor Analysis.

Reliability

The scale’s reliability was assessed through internal consistency measures. The final 7-item structure of the scale demonstrated a total Cronbach’s Alpha (α) of 0.66. When analyzing the subscales individually, the internal consistency was reported as follows:

• The Safety factor yielded a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.62, with a homogeneity coefficient of 0.29.

• The Anxiety factor yielded a Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.67, with a homogeneity coefficient of 0.41.

While these alpha values are generally considered acceptable for newly developed psychological scales, particularly in exploratory research, they suggest moderate internal consistency for the two derived factors.

Factor Analysis

The scale structure was determined using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The initial EFA guided the item reduction process, retaining only those items that demonstrated a factorial load of |≥ 0.37|. The analysis of the scree plot strongly indicated that a two-factor solution provided the most statistically sound and theoretically meaningful structure for the data. A subsequent factor analysis was executed, constraining the extraction to two factors, thereby confirming the final configuration of the instrument, which consists of 7 items distributed across the two identified factors: Safety and Anxiety.

Instrument

Test Type: Original

Format: This is an inventory/questionnaire utilizing a five-point Likert scale format. Responses range from 1 (Never) to 5 (Always). The instrument consists of 7 items divided into two subscales: Safety and Anxiety. Administration is typically conducted electronically.

Language Available: Portuguese (Brazilian Portuguese)

Population Group: Human; Female

Age Group: Adulthood (18 yrs & older), including Young Adulthood (18-29 yrs), Thirties (30-39 yrs), and Middle Age (40-64 yrs)

Population Details: The scale was developed and psychometrically tested on a specific sample of university women located in Brazil.

Test Methodology: Test Validity, Test Reliability, Internal Consistency, Factor Analysis, Exploratory Factor Analysis

Keywords

Anxiety, Birth Control, Family Planning Attitudes, Female Attitudes, Morning-after Pill Attitudes, Reproductive Health, Safety, Sex and Gender Measures

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Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: ORCID data is not available for any of the listed authors.

Affiliation Email addresses: The affiliation email address provided for correspondence is [email protected] (for de Medeiros, Emerson Diógenes).

Correspondence Address: Correspondence should be directed to de Medeiros, Emerson Diógenes ([email protected]).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions: May use for Research/Teaching

Fee: No

Commercial: No

Test Year: 2023

Web Site: The work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en

Reference’s

Passos, Á. L. V., Leite, A. A. G. R., de Medeiros, E. D., de Araújo, L. F., Couto, R. N., & da Silva, P. G. N. (2023). Pílula do Dia Seguinte: Elaboração e Evidências Psicométricas de uma Medida [Morning-after pill: Psychometric preparation and evidence of a measure]. Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa, 39, Article e39505. https://doi.org/10.1590/0102.3772e39505.pt

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Items of the Escala de Atitudes Frente à Pílula do Dia Seguinte (FAMPS, EAFPDS)

The 7 items that constitute this measure are available in the source reference article (Passos et al., 2023), specifically located in Table 2 on page 7. Os itens estão organizados em duas subescalas: Ansiedade e Segurança.

Nota. Os respondentes avaliam cada item numa escala do tipo Likert de cinco pontos, variando de 1 (Nunca) a 5 (Sempre). (R) indica um item invertido.