Psychometric characteristics of Form B of the multidimensional health locus of control scale in Iranian youth

Aim. The purpose of the study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Form B of MHLC scales in Iranian youth.

Background. The HLC is regarded as an effective variable in the development of health behavior, clinical capacity, and determining the health problems. Many studies have been conducted on MHLC scale throughout the world which has helped to valuable results in the context of health behaviors, health outcomes and health care. Methods. 448 undergraduate students participate in this study. The reliability coefficients were calculated in some methods such as: test–retest, parallel forms and Cronbach alpha. In order to survey validity of the scale we used four methods including content, concurrent, construct and predictive validity.

 Results. We established the content validity of the scale by forward and backward–translating each item from English to Persian version. The concurrent validity of the questionnaire, as measured by Levenson’s IPC scale, estimated acceptable. For determining of predictive validity, the relationship between Form B and health status was used which showed health status correlated positively with IHLC, negatively with CHLC and did not correlate with PHLC. The exploratory factor analysis indicated that the factor structure of the scale was quite similar to that of the original scale. The approximate orthogonal of the dimensions were obtained through correlation analyses.  Internal consistency ranged .69 to .72 and parallel forms reliability ranged .70 to .72 for sub-scales. Participants responded the questionnaire items moderately consistently over a 4-week period. Conclusion. The results indicated that psychometric properties of Persian Form B of MHLC estimated acceptable and respectable in Iranian youth and therefore the Persian Form B of the MHLC is reliable and valid measure.