A validation and reduced form of the female condom attitudes scale

The Female Condom Attitudes Scale is an instrument comprising five correlated factors derived from 15 Likert-scale survey items that measure women's attitudes toward the female condom. This scale originated from the 30-item scale of Choi, Gregorich, Anderson, Grinstead, and Gomez (200 1; manuscript under review). Exploratory factor analysis of this scale extracted eight correlated factors. Reliability coefficients and confirmatory factor analyses refined the instrument by reducing the number of factors to five and halving the number of items. The reduced form of the Female Condom Attitudes Scale demonstrated both construct and convergent validity by predicting self-reported female condom use behavior. It also correlated with self-efficacy to use male condoms, sexual comfort, and attitudes toward the male condom. The five factors remaining in the final survey instrument were Sexual Pleasure Enhancement, Inconvenience, Improved Prophylaxis, Sexual Pleasure Inhibition, and Insertion Reluctance. Implications of theme findings for basic and applied intervention research are discussed.