Description

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to explore the properties and response patterns of a new subscale about social support for toothbrushing behavior among people who identify as Mexican/Mexican-American/Mexican-origin/Chicanx. METHODS: Data are from a subsample from a larger scale development and validation project. The participants were categorized by sex assigned at birth, preferred language (English/Spanish), and marital status (single/married). 62 participants completed an Oral Health Behavior Social Support (OHBSS) survey, then a repeat OHBSS survey and interview. Participants were between the ages 21-40, residing in the following counties in California or Arizona: San Diego, Imperial, Riverside, Orange, Yuma, Santa Cruz, Cochise, or Pima. The repeat surveys and interviews were conducted between April-September 2022, and lasted approximately 60 minutes; participants received a $25 Amazon gift card. A trained bilingual research assistant obtained informed consent and collected all data in each participant’s preferred language. Participants waited 2-4 weeks after taking the baseline survey before taking the repeat survey. Repeat survey responses for the new brushing support scale only were assessed, and responses by language and source of support group (family, health providers, others) were compared. Data were analyzed in SPSS 28. Descriptive statistics were tabulated. Cronbach’s alphas were calculated to assess the new subscale’s psychometric properties in English and Spanish. RESULTS: Of the 62 participants, 40 spoke English, 22 spoke Spanish, 15% were men, and 60% were single. Cronbach’s alphas for Brushing Behavior were above 0.96 in English and above 0.97 in Spanish. Average responses in both languages showed that participants get more support for brushing from family (1.9 English; 2.5 Spanish) and health providers ( 2.8 English; 3.0 Spanish) rather than others/friends (0.5 English; 0.9 Spanish). Response options were 0=never to 4=always. CONCLUSION: Providers had the biggest influence on participants. The set of 12 items in the new brushing subscale were consistent, showing good reliability given the high alphas. This was a relatively small convenience sample, but shows that the new subscale captures different responses by subgroup and shows strong psychometric properties in both languages.