Designing and Determining Psychometric Properties of Meaning of Life Scale in Women with Breast Cancer: A Mixed Method Study.

Introduction: Due to lack of specific tools for assessing meaning of life in women with breast cancer, this study was conducted to design and determine the psychometric properties of meaning of life scale in women with breast cancer. Methods: This sequential exploratory mixed method study was performed in hospitals affiliated to Urmia University of Medical Sciences in three stages: 1) the concept of meaning of life was explained (with 22 women); 2) Item pool was developed; 3) The psychometric properties of the tool was determined using content, face and construct validity (215 women). Sampling adequacy was confirmed by KMO=0.84. The extraction method used was principal component analysis (PCA), and an oblique rotation (oblimin) was applied. Internal consistency reliability and stability was determined. Results: First stage led to the formation of a theme entitled "evolution in the process of life" with 7 main categories. Then the primary tool was compiled, face and content validity by quantitative and qualitative method was determined. Construct validity (with 215 women) through exploratory factor analysis led to identifying four factors (better understanding of the value of life, striving for spiritual evolution, atempt to adaptation to disease, mental challenges due to disease) with 37 items in final scale. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated as 0.95 and intra-class correlation coefficient was calculated as 0.97. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that the newly developed meaning of life scale for Iranian women with breast cancer demonstrates acceptable content, face, and construct validity, along with good reliability. This culturally adapted and validated instrument can be used by researchers in future studies and psychosocial intervention programs targeting this population.