Translation and psychometric evaluation of composite feedback-seeking behavior questionnaire among Iranian medical residents

Background Proactively seeking feedback from clinical supervisors, peers or other healthcare professionals is a valuable mechanism for residents to obtain useful information about and improve their performance in clinical settings. Given the scant studies investigating the limited aspects of psychometrics properties of the feedback-seeking instruments in medical education, this study aimed to translate the feedback-seeking behavior scales (frequency of feedback-seeking, motives of feedback-seeking, and promotion of feedback-seeking by supervisors) into Persian and evaluate the psychometric properties of the composite questionnaire among medical residents at Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran.Methods In this cross-sectional study, feedback-seeking behavior scales were translated through the forward-backward method, and its face validity and content validity were assessed by 10 medical residents and 18 experts. The test-retest reliability was evaluated by administering the questionnaire to 20 medical residents on two testing occasions. A convenience sample of 548 residents completed the questionnaire. Construct validity was examined by exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis and concurrent validity was determined by Pearson's correlation coefficient.Results Content validity assessment showed that the CVR (0.66 to 0.99) and CVI (0.82 to 0.99) values for items and S-CVI values (0.88 to 0.99) for scales were satisfactory. The exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the models were confirmed with eight items and two factors (explaining 70.98% of the total variance) for the frequency of feedback-seeking scale, with 16 items and four factors (explaining 73.22% of the total variance) for the motives of feedback seeking scale and with four items and one factor (explaining 69.46% of the total variance) for promotion of feedback-seeking by supervisors. AVE values greater than 0.5 and discriminant validity correlations significantly less than 1.0 demonstrated that the total scores of the composite feedback-seeking behavior questionnaire had a favorable fit and the questions could fit their respective factors, and the latent variables were distinct. We found positive and significant correlations between the three scales and their subscales.Conclusion The results of the present study supported the validity and reliability of the Persian composite feedback-seeking behavior questionnaire for assessing feedback-seeking behaviors in medical residents. Applying the questionnaire in residency programs may enhance the quality of clinical education.