Evaluating Nursing Students’ Attitudes Towards Addressing Sexual Health: A Principal Component Analysis of an Arabic Questionnaire in Saudi Arabia

Purpose: This study assessed the psychometric properties of the Students’ Attitudes Towards Sexual Health- Arabic Version (SA-SH-A) among student nurses. Methods: The study utilized a quantitative, methodological approach. A convenience sample of 267 nursing students in one university situated in the central region of Saudi Arabia. The study used face-to-face surveys to collect data from November 2021 to August 2022. For content validity, the item-level content and scale-level content validity indices were applied following the averaging method. Researchers used Cronbach's alpha (a) to measure the reliability, and analysis of the principal component with the varimax rotation was employed for construct validity. Results: Two distinct components (Feelings of comfortableness and Fear of negative influence on client relations) were revealed in the factor analysis, explaining 63.2 % of the variance. The 15-item SA-SH-A's overall Cronbach's a is 0.92, with two components ranging from 0.84 to 0.93. Conclusion: The SA-SH-A has an acceptable content and construct psychometric properties. This tool can be utilized to accurately assess nursing students’ attitudes toward sexual health in Saudi Arabia. By enabling nursing students to selfreport their attitudes toward sexual health, this tool promotes culturally sensitive, patient-centered care. It guides nursing schools in preparing students to address sexual health with Cultural awareness facilitates standardized data collection for cross-cultural research. As a culturally appropriate instrument, it also serves as a reference for future researchers developing similar tools in Arabic, enhancing nursing education and practice.