Background:

An increase in the self-medication in youth has been observed in last decades. Although there are several instruments to measure the behavior of self-medication, none of them work is aimed to measure the underlying attitude. The goal of this study was to design and evaluate an attitude towards self-medication measurement scale in youth and adolescence and the assessment of its psychometric characteristics.

Methods:

Development and validation of the Attitude towards self-medication Scale based on the data obtained in February 2012 of 665 adolescents with an average age of 15.5 years (D.T = 1.1) in educational centers of the Community of Madrid. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were computed.

Results:

EFA revealed a 3 factors solution: Self-medication and regulation of negative emotions (9 items), Peer-based self-medication and advertising (5 items) and Self-medication by own decision (3 items), with adequate reliability indexes. A CFA comparing 2 alternative models revealed that the 3 factor model yielded more satisfactory fit indexes. Results from a CFA for this model was also performed with a random sample, comprising half of the participants, also showed adequate fit indexes.

Conclusions:

The developed scale showed acceptable psychometric properties, and even with different latent factors it shows unidimensionality. Inner consistency of the overall scale and of each of the three factors is acceptable. Goodness of fit indexes is adequate.

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