Development of self report measure on pubertal changes for school going adolescent girls

Objective: To investigate experiences of pubertal changes in adolescent girls in Pakistan and to measure experiences of these changes. Methodology: This study was conducted in Government and Private schools of Lahore City from September, 2017 to March, 2019. Adolescent girls with an age range of 11-16 years were included in the study. A self-report measure was constructed in two phases. In phase I, steps of scale development including, identification of construct, item generation, logical review and empirical validation were defined. In phase II, psychometric properties and factorial structure of self-report measure were established. Results:. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) suggested three factors (emotional distress, behavioral maturation and self-care and management) while the association among the factors and aptness for factor analysis was depicted by Bartlett's test of sphericity. Out of 30 items, 26 items converge into factorial model. Reliability and concurrent validity of the scale was found to be adequate and discriminant validity of the scale was also high. Conclusion: Pubertal Changes Experience Scale is a valid and reliable measure to evaluate experiences of menarche in adolescent girls.