Affective and cognitive components of students' attitudes towards communication learning - validation of the Communication Skills Attitude Scale in a cohort of polish medical students.
BACKGROUND
The Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) is a recognized tool for assessment of attitudes towards communication learning. In the original version, it consists of 26 items divided on theoretical assumptions into two subscales: Positive and Negative Attitudes Scales. However, the evidence for its structure seems unsatisfactory, and a simple division into positive and negative attitudes may be insufficient to describe attitudes of medical students towards communication learning. Moreover, the existing evidence of the test-retest reliability of the CSAS seems limited. Consequently, this study aimed to provide more evidence on its psychometric properties while validating the CSAS questionnaire in a cohort of Polish medical students.


METHODS
The CSAS was translated, adapted into Polish, and validated in a cohort of 389 Polish medical students. Statistical analysis involved, among others, parallel analysis to determine the number of factors, confirmatory factor analysis to compare the proposed model with theory-based ones, and test-retest reliability analysis.


RESULTS
Conducted analysis revealed that in the examined population, the CSAS should rather consist of four than two subscales. Proposed four subscales addressed perceived outcomes of communication learning, positive and negative attitudes towards it (affective components), and factors motivating students to learn communication (a cognitive component of attitudes). Results of test-retest reliability were satisfactory for individual items and subscales.


CONCLUSIONS
This study presented a valid and reliable version of the Communication Skills Attitude Scale for Polish medical students and confirmed previous assumptions that CSAS may also be appropriate for assessment of affective and cognitive components of attitudes. Future research should, based on Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior, make attempts to develop a tool assessing not only attitudes but also subjective norms and perceived behavioral control.
['Przymuszała|Piotr|P|http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8785-724X', 'Cerbin-Koczorowska|Magdalena|M|', 'Marciniak-Stępak|Patrycja|P|', 'Zielińska-Tomczak|Łucja|Ł|', 'Piszczek|Martyna|M|', 'Jasiński|Jan|J|', 'Marciniak|Ryszard|R|']
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel D003071:Cognition D003142:Communication D006801:Humans D011044:Poland D015203:Reproducibility of Results D013337:Students, Medical D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
Communication skills attitude scale Medical students CSAS Cognitive components of attitudes Affective components of attitudes