Psychometric evaluation of the Korean version of the attitudes toward acute mental health scale

The purpose of this study was to adapt the Attitudes Toward Acute Mental Health Scale (ATAMHS) into the Korean language and culture and then to determine the reliability and validity of it by administering it to a sample of Korean nursing students and nurses. We conducted a psychometric evaluation that included a two-step item analysis (analysis and reanalysis), exploratory factor analysis and concurrent validity. The ATAMHS was translated into Korean by bilingual nurses. Then, 429 participants (224 undergraduate nursing students and 205 nurses, all with psychiatric experience) completed the translated version of the ATAMHS. The item analysis revealed that nine items correlated poorly with the rest; thus, they were deleted from the scale. The final Korean version of the scale, which we refer to as the Korean version of the ATAMHS (ATAMHS-K), contains 24 items. The ATAMHS-K showed good internal consistency. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three factors (professional perspective, semantic differentials and positive attitudes) that explained 39.5% of the variance. The ATAMHS-K had strong correlations with the Korean version of the Community Attitudes towards the Mentally Ill Scale, thus confirming the concurrent validity. Therefore, the ATAMHS-K demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties as a measure of attitudes toward acute mental health in Korean nursing students and nurses.