Stem Cells (SCs) are among the most promising research venues in medicine. They are also studied in social sciences, but literature is fragmented and lacks standard tools. This project aims at carrying out a first validation of some SC-relevant social-psychological constructs' scales. Nine scales are targeted for measuring the following variables, considered as relevant on the basis of existing literature on the specific topic or related subjects: subjective knowledge on SC donation; objective knowledge on SC donation; attitudes toward SC donation; past tissue donation behaviours; positive incentives toward SC donation; negative incentives toward SC donation; intention of SC donation; importance of SC sustainability; satisfaction with SC information. Data will be gathered using a self-report questionnaire articulated into different scales (sections) and administrated to a preiminary sample of a few hundreds Italian valid subjects. Factorial structures will be explored via factorial analyses with Principal Axis Factoring (PAF), Oblimin rotation and Cronbach's alpha tests. Expected results refer to final scales possessing a satisfactory factorial structure (limited number of factors, satisfying and univocal item-factor correlations) and internal consistency (alpha > .70), such that they could therefore already be used for further research within an immediate future.
Most scales are expected to reach a satisfactory factorial structure and internal consistency (¿>.60) and therefore they will be available to already be used for new studies: in the near future, they will offer opportunity for cumulative knowledge within a relatively new field. More specifically, Subjective knowledge on SCs donation Scale and Attitudes toward SCs donation Scale are expected to present highly satisfactory indices, being measures of constructs already explored in previous similar studies (e.g., Hodges et al., 2012; Siegel et al., 2014). However, the present project could provide their first statistical validation in terms of factorial structure and internal consistency. They will therefore be able to provide reliable scores for respectively ¿Subjective knowledge on SCs donation¿ and ¿Attitudes towards SCs donation¿.
Other scales, being created on a weaker basis derived from previous studies, are expected to present acceptable but less optimal factorial structure and internal consistency: they will anyway ready to be used with caution and, most probably, they would need further improvements by next studies,in order to increase their statistical validation indexes. This could probably be the case of Positive incentives toward SCs donation Scale, Negative incentives toward SCs donation Scale, Intention of SCs donation Scale, Importance of SCs sustainability Scale and Satisfaction with SCs information Scale.
Since importance of SC sustainability Scale is targeted to measure a new construct, it will probably reach some sufficient degree of statistical validity, thus being the first available tool in both the National and International literature. However, it will probably be expected to result in a first version which will necessarily require some further improvement in terms of either items¿ numbers or formulation, or statistical validity indexes.
The Satisfaction with SCs information scale should be already able to present acceptable indices, though some degree of improvement may be present here too, possibly related to items uniformity wih respect to the resulting dimension(s).
Finally, as far as the two scales adopting a different response format (vs. the standard Likert-type), most probably they will require major adjustments in order to achieve a fully satsfying valid revised version. The higher risk involved in the statistical validation of the first version of such two scales relates to the fact that for both Objective knowledge on SC donation items, and Past tissue donation behaviours items, their distribution may encounter difficulties in approximate a normal distribution. Several items could need either reformulation or new design before they will be able to be selected for future studies on similar samples (i.e., addressing the general public). This may be expected on the basis of some literature contributions confirming that blood is the most common donated tissue, while most people are often not familiar with other kinds of donation (European Commission, 2015). However, the proposed study is necessary in order to empirically check such a consideration which, for the time being, remains an assumption. Empircal results from the proposed study would therefore, in the more optimistic scenario, already provide useful items for the measurement of the involved cosntructs; in the less optimistic scenario, they would however provide precious information in order to subsequently develop a new set of items which will be then used to create a second version of such two scales to be statistically validated within the research developments that the proposed project will spur after its delivery.
Overall, the proposed project will offer a first created and statistically validated version of tools to be used in social-psychological research on SCs donation. A range of relevant constructs will result to have at least a preliminary standard version statistically checked on an Italian sample, which could subsequently be the basis upon which to develop a final refined valid version; in several cases this project will already provide a statistically valid scale (with a clear simple factorial structure characterized by internal consistency) in order to measure the relevant construct. More generally, in the near future SCs scales deriving from the present project will be expected to become useful both for research aims and for practical applications in the context of SCs donation studies and practices. For example, they could be useful to improve the scientific understanding of relevant predictors for SCs donation behaviours. Moreover, their adoption could also be useful in order to assess the value of information and communication campaigns, or of other kind of intervention, devoted to improving donors¿ compliance with SCs donation practices.