• Yuanyuan Yang, Litao Guo, and Zhijuan Shen.
• Peking University School of Nursing, 38 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China. Electronic address: yangyuanyuan@bjmu.edu.cn.
• Midwifery. 2020 Dec 1; 91: 102834.

ObjectivePreterm mother-infant dyads face more challenges than healthy term infants in breastfeeding initiation and continuation due to maternal health status, preterm infant's immaturity or comorbidities, and breastfeeding policy of the neonatal units. Breastfeeding self-efficacy affects breastfeeding outcomes in preterm infants. No specific instrument in Chinese is available to assess maternal breastfeeding self-efficacy of preterm infants. This study aims to assess the psychometric characteristics of the modified Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale-Short Form (BSES-SF) among Chinese mothers of preterm infants.DesignA cross-sectional study was conducted.SettingTwo tertiary hospitals in China.ParticipantsA total of 153 women who gave birth before 37 weeks of gestation.MeasurementsThe instrument was translated and back translated. The internal consistency reliability was investigated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The content validity, construct validity, and criterion validity were conducted to evaluate the validity of the scale. Exploratory factor analysis was used to investigate the factor structure.FindingsThe scale had good reliability with Cronbach´s alpha above the acceptable level of 0.7. The Item-Content Validity Index (I-CVI) ranged from 0.800 to 1.000, and the Scale-Content Validity Index (S-CVI) is 0.950. The principal component analysis revealed the presence of two factors with eigenvalues greater than 1, explaining a total variance of 74.665%. The modified BSES-SF scores were correlated with women's parity, breastfeeding knowledge, previous breastfeeding experience, perceived support from the spouse and health professionals, and amounts of expressed milk.Key Conclusions And Implications For PracticeThe Chinese version of modified BSES-SF is a reliable, valid screening instrument to evaluate the maternal breastfeeding self-efficacy of preterm infants. It is recommended to provide interactive, face-to-face breasting education and support to help mothers of preterm infants maintain high level of breastfeeding self-efficacy and further to achieve satisfactory breastfeeding outcomes.Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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