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Nursing Motives for Helping Scale (N-MHS): Reliability and Validity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2014

José Luis González Gutiérrez ,
Cecilia Peñacoba Puente ,
Ricardo Moreno Rodríguez ,
Almudena López López  and
Lilian Velasco Furlong
José Luis González Gutiérrez*
Affiliation:
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Cecilia Peñacoba Puente
Affiliation:
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Ricardo Moreno Rodríguez
Affiliation:
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Almudena López López
Affiliation:
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Lilian Velasco Furlong
Affiliation:
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. José Luis González Gutiérrez. Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Avda. Atenas s/n, 28922 Alcorcón (Madrid), Spain. Fax: 34 91 4888956. E-mail: joseluis.gonzalez@urjc.es
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Abstract

This paper presents the Nursing Motives for Helping Scale (N-MHS), an instrument designed for the evaluation of three of the four motives for helping derived from Batson's helping pathway theory. Dimensionality was analyzed by means of principal component analysis (n = 113), followed by confirmatory factor analysis. A 3-factor structure (corresponding to Batson's differentiation among altruistic motivation, reward-seeking motivation, and punishment-avoidance motivation, respectively), with 9 items distributed in three latent variables, revealed an acceptable fit to the data. Alpha values (.60 - .74) showed that internal consistency was acceptable for a newly developed subscale with a small number of items. Convergence validity was evaluated with correlations between N-MHS subscales scores and scores on the Professional Expectations Scale (Garrosa, Moreno-Jiménez, Rodríguez-Carvajal, & Morante, 2005). The three resulting subscales are a promising instrument for the evaluation of three nursing motives for helping that can contribute to reduce the potential risks and to improve the potential benefits both for the nurse and the patient.

En este articulo se presenta la Escala de Motivaciones de Ayuda en Enfermería [The Nursing Motives for Helping Scale (N-MHS)], un instrumento elaborado para evaluar tres de las cuatro motivaciones de ayuda derivadas del modelo de motivación prosocial de Batson. Se analizó la dimensionalidad mediante análisis de componentes principales (n = 113), seguido de análisis factorial confirmatorio. La estructura de 3 factores (correspondiendo a la diferenciación de Batson entre las motivaciones altruista, la de búsqueda de recompensa y la de evitación del castigo, respectivamente), con 9 ítems distribuidos en 3 variables latentes, mostró un ajuste aceptable a los datos. Los valores de alfa (.60 - .74) indicaron que la consistencia interna era aceptable para una subescala nueva con un número pequeño de ítems. La validez convergente se evaluó mediante las correlaciones entre las puntuaciones de las subescalas de la N-MHS y las puntuaciones en la Escala de Expectativas Profesionales (Garrosa, Moreno-Jiménez, Rodríguez-Carvajal y Morante, 2005). Las tres subescalas resultantes constituyen un instrumento prometedor para la evaluación de tres motivaciones de ayuda de enfermería que pueden contribuir a reducir los riesgos y a incrementar los beneficios potenciales tanto de los profesionales de enfermería como de los pacientes.

Keywords

motivation to helpnursingaltruismvalidityreliabilityquestionnairemotivación de ayudaenfermeríaaltruismovalidezfiabilidadcuestionario
Type
Articles
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , May 2006 , pp. 103 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

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