Assessing the Validity of Measures of an Instrument Designed to Measure Employees' Perceptions of Workplace Breastfeeding Support

Objective: Breastfeeding rates among working mothers are lower than among mothers who are not employed. An ecological framework suggests that health behaviors, such as breastfeeding, are influenced by intrapersonal and environmental factors. There is no existing instrument to measure women's perception of the workplace environment in providing breastfeeding support. The objective of this study was to pilot an instrument measuring perceptions of the work climate for breastfeeding support among working women. Study design: Data were collected from self-administered mailed questionnaires filled out by 104 pregnant women or women who had recently given birth and were employed and breastfeeding. Results: Dimensionally analyses supported the two-dimensional model suggested by the literature. Internal consistency reliability coefficients were high (near 0.90), and the correlation between the subscales was moderately strong (0.68). Conclusions: Only a single item exhibited misfit to the scaling model, and that item was revised after review.