Cross-cultural adaptation of the Attitudes about Poverty and Poor People instrument for nursing students

Objective: To carry out cross-cultural adaptation of the Attitudes about Poverty and Poor People scale for Brazilian nursing students.Methods: This is a methodological study of cross-cultural adaptation. The following phases were carried out: translation, synthesis, back-translation, meeting with translators, meeting with experts, content validity, pre-test and cognitive interviews. The scale application sample consisted of ten nursing students from a public higher education institution. A Content Validity Index greater than 0.8 was adopted. Pre-test reliability was verified from Cronbach's alpha and split-half.Results: The scale items, translated into Brazilian Portuguese, underwent an assessment of semantic, idiomatic, experiential and conceptual equivalence. Two items had a Content Validity Index lower than 0.8. They underwent adjustments and underwent a second round of assessment, with a Content Validity Index equal to 1. Pre-test reliability values were 0.839 (Cronbach's alpha) and 0.859 (split-half). Cognitive interviews revealed problems mainly related to interpretation.Conclusion: The scale culturally adapted to Brazilian Portuguese has content validity for the sample tested. It is important to verify other evidence of validity, such as based on the response process, the internal structure, the relationship with other variables and the consequence of testing.