Validation of a Turkish translation of the Communication Skills Attitude Scale with Turkish medical students.

OBJECTIVE: In recent years, many medical schools have added communication skills training to their curricula, and some studies have measured medical students' attitudes toward learning communication skills. The Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) was developed in England; however, there is no scale to measure these attitudes in Turkey. This study aims to adapt and examine the psychometric properties of a Turkish translation of the Communication Skills Attitude Scale in a group of Turkish medical students.

METHODS: One hundred and seventy nine students from years 1 to 5 in Adnan Menderes University Medical School in Turkey voluntarily participated in the study. Mean age was 19.7 years (+/-3.8). Factor analysis was conducted to assess construct validity, and Cronbach alphas were calculated to evaluate internal consistency.

RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis confirmed the original structure of the scale as positive and negative subscales, with some modifications. After putting items 8 and 13 into the positive subscale and item 22 into the negative subscale, alphas were calculated as 0.92 and 0.71, respectively. For divergent validity, comparisons showed that groups from training years 1 to 5 differed (p<0 .001) in their positive and negative subscale scores.

CONCLUSIONS: This study substantiates the validity and internal consistency of the Turkish version of the CSAS and demonstrates that it can be used in future studies and educational evaluations to measure medical students' attitudes towards learning communication skills.