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Reproductive Agency Scale 17 (RAS-17)

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.

Categories

Geographies Tested: Qatar

Populations Included: Female

Age Range: Adolescents, Adults

Items:

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

Scoring Procedures

Average scores are calculated across sub-scales.

Original Citation

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


Psychometric Score

Ease of Use Score

Scoring breakdown

Formative Research

Qualitative Research

Existing Literature/Theoretical Framework

Field Expert Input

Cognitive Interviews / Pilot Testing

Reliability

Internal

Test-retest

Interrater

Validity

Content

Face

Criterion (gold-standard)

Construct

KEY

Ease of Use

Readability

Scoring Clarity

Length

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