The development and validation of the psychological capital questionnaire for patients with Cancer the psychological capital questionnaire

Background Studies increasingly show that positive psychological constructs affect the mental health of cancer patients. However, most scales that measure hope, resilience, optimism and self-efficacy have been developed based on general populations. The aim of our study was to develop a psychological capital (PsyCap) questionnaire for patients with cancer (PCQ-C) to gauge their mental state more accurately. Methods The items for the scale were selected by comprehensive literature review and semi-structured interviews, and the relevant terms were screened by an expert panel. A pilot study was then conducted on 202 patients to reduce the item pool, and the reliability and validity of the scale were evaluated using 500 completed questionnaires. The test-retest reliability was then assessed using a subsample of 100 patients. Finally, the completed questionnaires of 229 patients with breast cancer were used to assess the criterion validity of the PCQ-C, including measures of depression and anxiety. Results Item reduction and exploratory factory analysis resulted in 24 items for self-efficacy, hope, resilience and optimism, accounting for 56.72% of the variance. The Cronbach's alpha for the scale was 0.886, and the test-retest reliability was 0.825. PsyCap showed a significant negative correlation with both depression (r = - 0.631, P < 0.01) and anxiety (r = - 0.601, P < 0.01). Conclusion The PCQ-C can objectively evaluate PsyCap in cancer patients and exhibits good psychometric properties.