Appraisal of Life Events scale in a sample of Greek infertile women undergoing fertility treatment: A confirmatory factor analysis

Objectiveto examine the construct validity of the Greek version of the Appraisal of Life Events (ALE) scale, originally developed by Ferguson et al. (1999), in a sample of infertile women. As there are no data concerning the validity of the ALE scale in infertile populations, a special focus was placed on construct validity through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).Settingpublic hospital in Athens, Greece.Designcross-sectional study.Participants160 women undergoing fertility treatment with in-vitro fertilisation.Methodsthe ALE scale was ‘forward–backward’ translated from English to Greek. The translated instrument was then administered to a set of infertile women for pilot testing. CFA was used to test the construct validity of the ALE scale.FindingsCFA supported the superiority of a model with three correlated first-order factors (challenge, threat and loss) and one second-order factor (stress appraisal) that underlay the first-order factors of threat and loss.Conclusionthe ALE scale was found to have a multidimensional structure.Implications for practicethe assessment of infertility appraisal during in-vitro fertilisation through a valid instrument may lead to the identification of women who are at greater risk of experiencing high stress, not only during fertility treatment but also during pregnancy and postnatal period in case of a successful IVF treatment.