Development and psychometric evaluation of the parents' self-efficacy scale for medication administration to children at home.

AIM: This study aimed to develop the Parents' Self-Efficacy Scale for Medication Administration to Children at Home and to examine preliminary evidence for its psychometric properties. STUDY DESIGN: A methodological scale-development study was conducted with 253 parents of children aged 0-6 years at a training and research hospital in western Türkiye between March 2024 and May 2025. Item generation was guided by Bandura's self-efficacy theory and literature on pediatric home medication safety. Content validity was evaluated by a panel of pediatric nursing experts, and the draft form was piloted with 20 parents to assess clarity and comprehensibility. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted in the same sample; internal consistency was examined using Cronbach's alpha, item-total correlations, and split-half reliability. RESULTS: The final 16-item scale comprised two sub-dimensions: medication preparation and medication administration. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value was 0.969, and Bartlett's test of sphericity was significant (X2 = 5688.084, p < .001). The two-factor solution explained 81.3% of the total variance. Exploratory factor loadings ranged from 0.496 to 0.929 for the first factor and from 0.870 to 0.910 for the second factor. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated acceptable model fit (X2/df = 2.549, RMSEA = 0.078, GFI = 0.90, CFI = 0.97, IFI = 0.97, NFI = 0.96, TLI/NNFI = 0.97). Cronbach's alpha coefficients were 0.961 for the total scale, 0.983 for medication preparation, and 0.889 for medication administration. Item-total correlations ranged from 0.758 to 0.915. CONCLUSIONS: The scale provides preliminary evidence of content validity, internal consistency, and a two-factor structure in this sample. Further validation in independent, more diverse samples is needed, including evidence of test-retest reliability and external validity. In this scale, the second sub-dimension consists of only two items and should therefore be interpreted cautiously on its own. PRACTICE IMPLICATION: The scale may help pediatric nurses identify parents who perceive lower self-efficacy in home medication preparation and administration, thereby informing individualized parent education and discharge planning.