The Reproductive Agency Scale 17 (RAS-17) is a 17-item measure of women’s reproductive agency. The measure includes aspects related to women’s intrinsic and instrumental reproductive agency in terms of awareness of their economic rights, influence in personal and family decisions, and freedom of movement.
Geographies Tested: Qatar
Populations Included: Female
Age Range: Adolescents, Adults
Intrinsic Reproductive Agency
Awareness of economic rights
Now I’m going read some statements to you. Please tell me how much you agree or disagree with each statement
1. Every woman should have a university education
2. A woman is powerful if she works for pay at a job outside the home
3. A woman should be free to sell her own property
4. Financial independence makes a woman strong
5. Independent of money, working outside the home strengthens a woman’s personality
Response Options:
5-point Likert scale
Strongly disagree - 1
Strongly agree- 5
Instrumental Reproductive Agency
Influence in personal and family decisions
How much influence have you had in the following decisions:
6. How to spend your own money
7. Whether or not you can leave the house unaccompanied
8. What food available in the house you can eat
9. How much you work during your current pregnancy
10. How much you rest during your current pregnancy
Response Options:
No influence - 1
A little influence - 2
Some influence - 3
A lot of influence - 4
I decided by myself - 5
Freedom of movement
Under what circumstances are you allowed to go to the following places:
11. The hospital
12. The movies
13. Restaurants at hotels
14. Coffee shops
15. The mall
16. A female friend’s house
17. Parks or gardens
Response Options:
You are not allowed to go - 1
You do not go - 2
You go with permission if accompanied - 3
You go with permission by yourself - 4
You go without permission if accompanied - 5
You go without permission by yourself - 6
Average scores are calculated across sub-scales.
Yount, K. M., James-Hawkins, L., & Abdul Rahim, H. F. (2020). The Reproductive Agency Scale (RAS-17): Development and validation in a cross-sectional study of pregnant Qatari and non-Qatari Arab women. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth, 20(1), 503. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-020-03205-2
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