Validation and Reliability of the Chinese Version of the Miller Behavioral Style Scale

Abstract Objectives: To test the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of Miller Behavioral Style Scale(C-MBSS).Methods: The forward-back-translation procedure was adopted in the translation of the Miller Behavioral Style Scale. Content validity was assessed in a panel of experts. In a sample of 1343 individuals, reliability and construct validity were assessed using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and factor analysis. For exploratory factor analysis, parallel analysis was used to decide number of factors, principal axis factoring and direct oblimin rotation method were used to select factor. For confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling was established to verify the extracted factor structure.Results: The C-MBSS achieved conceptual and semantic equivalence with the original scale. The item content validity index(I-CVI) of each item ranged from 0.78 to 1, and the averaging scale content validity index(S-CVI/ Ave) was 0.95. The cronbach`s alpha coefficient for the scale and sub-scales were over 0.6. The exploratory factor analysis resulted in 2-factor assumption for each hypothetical threat-evoking scenario. Confirmatory factor analysis provided confirmatory evidence for the second-order factor structure of 2-factor solution (Monitoring and Blunting) and demonstrated a good fit between theoretical model and data. Conclusions: This study verified the psychometric properties of the C-MBSS and indicated that the C-MBSS can be used to identify individual`s information-seeking style in Chinese population. With the use of the C-MBSS, health care professionals in China can deliver health education based on patients’ information-seeking behavior, which can improve the effect of health education and patients’ health outcomes.