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Attitudes About Abortion-Providing Physicians Scale (AAAPPS)

The Attitudes About Abortion-Providing Physicians Scale (AAAPPS) is a 20-item scale of how clinicians view their abortion-providing colleagues. Using three sub-scales, items elicit opinions about assumed motivations and competence of these providers.

Categories

Geographies Tested: United States of America

Populations Included: Female, Male

Age Range: Adults

Items:

Opinions
1. Abortion providers provide necessary care for women.
2. Abortion providers make a positive contribution to society.
3. If my child became a physician, I would be proud if they offered abortion services.
4. Abortion providers are heroes.
5. I would be happy to help if an abortion provider calls me for consultation about a mutual patient seeking abortion care.
6. I would be happy to help if an abortion provider calls me for consultation about a patient that I do not know who is seeking abortion care.
7. I do not wish to play a consultant role in the care of any woman seeking abortion care.*
8. I am suspicious of the motivations of abortion providers.*
9. I think that abortion providers should be ashamed of their work.*
10. Abortion providers who work in free-standing clinics (e.g. Planned Parenthood) are generally unskilled physicians.*
11. I am more likely to forgive a medical error by a general surgeon than by a physician who performs abortions.*
12. I see more complications from abortion than I would expect if it is as safe as data suggest.*
13. My sense is that complications from abortion are more common than those from miscarriage treatment.*

Response Options:
Strongly disagree - 1
Disagree - 2
Neither agree nor disagree - 3
Agree - 4
Strongly agree - 5

Motivations
Compared with other doctors, abortion providers...
14. care __ deeply for their patients.
15. are __ concerned for their patients’ safety.
16. are __ motivated by their conscience to do their work.
17. are __ motivated by money.*

Competence
Compared with other doctors, abortion providers...
18. are __ competent physicians.
19. are __ technically skilled.
20. are __ well-trained to do the work they do.

Response Options:
Less - 0
Equally - 1
More - 2

*Items are reverse scored

Scoring Procedures

Values of items are summed to create the sub-scale and total scale scores. Higher sums reflect more positive attitudes. Aggregated total scores range from 13 to 79.

Original Citation

Martin, L. A., Seewald, M., Johnson, T. R. B., & Harris, L. H. (2020). Trusted colleagues or incompetent hacks? Development of the Attitudes About Abortion-Providing Physicians Scale. Womens Health Issues, 30(1), 16-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.whi.2019.09.002


Psychometric Score

Ease of Use Score

Scoring breakdown

Formative Research

Qualitative Research

Existing Literature/Theoretical Framework

Field Expert Input

Cognitive Interviews / Pilot Testing

Reliability

Internal

Test-retest

Interrater

Validity

Content

Face

Criterion (gold-standard)

Construct

KEY

Ease of Use

Readability

Scoring Clarity

Length

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