PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THE TURKISH VERSION OF THE EMOTIONAL COMMUNICATION SCALE FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS

Abstract

This study aimed to adapt the Emotional Communication Scale, which assesses emotional
communication in healthcare professionals in Türkiye, into Turkish and investigate its psychometric
properties. This study has a methodological design for the psychometric testing and validation of the
Emotional Communication Scale. The mean age of participants was 31.31 years (SD = 9.94), with
ages ranging from 19 to 60; of the 197 participants, 46 (23.4%) were males and 151 (76.6%) were
females. In the first stage of the study, language equivalence was ensured. Confirmatory factor
analysis (CFA) was conducted with the IBM AMOS 24.0 package program for construct validity.
According to the CFA results, the Turkish version of the scale has 14 items and 3-dimensional
structure, as in the English version. The model fit indices of the scale were acceptable (χ2/df=1.92,
CFI=0.94, TLI=0.92, IFI=0.94, GFI=0.91, RMSEA=0.07, and SRMR=0.03). The item-total
correlation coefficients of the scale ranged between 0.510 and 0.643. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient
was 0.885 for the whole scale, 0.838 for the communicative proactivity, 0.770 for the openness
authenticity, and 0.680 for the listening.The Turkish version of the Emotional Communication Scale is a measurement tool with high content
validity and internal consistency that can be used to assess the emotional communication attitudes of
healthcare professionals. The scale can help healthcare professionals determine their attitudes
toward emotional communication. Therefore, this tool will aid in developing training programs for
communication, design, and evaluation of training processes aimed at helping professionals working
in the healthcare field.