Biomaterial Database

The Labour Agentry Scale: psychometric properties of an instrument measuring control during childbirth. 1987

E D Hodnett, and D A Simmons-Tropea

Faculty of Nursing, Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Psychometric and field studies are reported concerning the development and assessment of the Labour Agentry Scale, an instrument measuring expectancies and experiences of personal control during childbirth. Factor analysis yielded evidence that it is a unifactorial scale, with factor loadings between 0.36 and 0.85. Dual-scaling techniques corroborated the results of factor analysis and provided evidence that few differences exist between antepartum and postpartum samples' responses to individual items. Field studies yielded evidence of an inverse relationship between anxiety and control, as well as evidence of construct validity. For example, subjects who had spontaneous, unmedicated births had the highest Labour Agentry Scale scores.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007389	Internal-External Control	Personality construct referring to an individual's perception of the locus of events as determined internally by his or her own behavior versus fate, luck, or external forces. (ERIC Thesaurus, 1996).	Locus of Control,External-Internal Control,Sense of Control,Control Locus,Control, External-Internal,Controls, External-Internal,Controls, Internal-External,Internal-External Controls
D007743	Labor, Obstetric	The repetitive uterine contraction during childbirth which is associated with the progressive dilation of the uterine cervix (CERVIX UTERI). Successful labor results in the expulsion of the FETUS and PLACENTA. Obstetric labor can be spontaneous or induced (LABOR, INDUCED).	Obstetric Labor
D011247	Pregnancy	The status during which female mammals carry their developing young (EMBRYOS or FETUSES) in utero before birth, beginning from FERTILIZATION to BIRTH.	Gestation,Pregnancies
D011594	Psychometrics	Assessment of psychological variables by the application of mathematical procedures.	Psychometric
D005163	Factor Analysis, Statistical	A set of statistical methods for analyzing the correlations among several variables in order to estimate the number of fundamental dimensions that underlie the observed data and to describe and measure those dimensions. It is used frequently in the development of scoring systems for rating scales and questionnaires.	Analysis, Factor,Analysis, Statistical Factor,Factor Analysis,Statistical Factor Analysis,Analyses, Factor,Analyses, Statistical Factor,Factor Analyses,Factor Analyses, Statistical,Statistical Factor Analyses
D005260	Female		Females
D006700	Home Childbirth	Childbirth taking place in the home.	Childbirth at Home,Childbirths at Home,Home Birth,Birth, Home,Births, Home,Childbirth, Home,Childbirths, Home,Home Births
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D001007	Anxiety	Feelings or emotions of dread, apprehension, and impending disaster but not disabling as with ANXIETY DISORDERS.	Angst,Anxiousness,Hypervigilance,Nervousness,Social Anxiety,Anxieties, Social,Anxiety, Social,Social Anxieties