Adaptation and Validation of the Sexuality Attitudes and Beliefs Scale for the Italian Context

Abstract

Background: Nurses dealing with a patient’s sexuality must start from an awareness of their own experience, specific attitudes, and possible limits. What emerges from the literature is a conservative tendency in nurses, which underlines the difficulty in this awareness, but even a difficulty in improving the necessary knowledge/skills. It is, therefore, essential to create tools that can raise awareness of these limits. Objective: the present study aims to explore the psychometric properties of the Attitudes and Beliefs about Sexuality Scale, adapted and validated for the Italian context. Method: This is an instrumental, cross-sectional piece of research, whose SABS validation process applies the steps of Beaton and Valmi. The convenience sample collected data from 223 participants in the first approach. This was followed by a retest involving 44 students randomly selected from those who responded in the first phase. Ethical principles were respected. Results: The SABS questionnaire demonstrated good test-retest reliability, good internal consistency, and adequate construct validity. Conclusions: The Italian version of the SABS is valid and reliable for use with nursing students. This is the fourth language in which the SABS is available for research.