Content validity of an instrument to measure young children's perceptions of the intensity of their pain.

Abstract

Abstract This research article describes a study to test the content validity of the photographic scale of the Oucher, a new instrument designed to elicit children's self-reports of pain intensity. Seventy-eight 3- to 7-year-old children placed photographs of a child's face in sequence of increasing pain/hurt. The children demonstrated moderately high agreement in their consistency of the photograph sequences. The findings of the study provide support for the sequence of the photographs displayed on the Oucher and, thus, for content validity for the photographic scale.