The Psychosocial Burden Among People Seeking Abortion Scale (PB-SAS) is a 12-item scale to measure dimensions of psychosocial burden experienced by people seeking abortion in the United States. The scale contains four sub-scales: structural challenges, pregnancy decision-making, lack of autonomy, and others’ reactions to the pregnancy.
Geographies Tested: United States of America
Populations Included: Female
Age Range: Adolescents, Adults
In thinking about the time since you discovered you were pregnant, please mark the choice that best describes...(If the statement does not feel true to you, mark "not at all difficult" or "not at all")
How difficult the following have been for you.
Structural Barriers
1. Finding a place to obtain care to end this pregnancy
2. Scheduling an appointment to end this pregnancy
3. Traveling to a place to obtain care to end this pregnancy
4. Amount of time I have spent trying to obtain care to end this pregnancy
Pregnancy Decision-Making
5. Deciding whether to end this pregnancy
6. Thinking I have to end this pregnancy
Response Options:
Not at all difficult - 0
A little bit difficult - 1
Somewhat difficult - 2
Very difficult - 3
How you have felt, when thinking about the following:
7. I felt worried that I'm ending a potential life
Lack of Autonomy
8. Felt forced to tell people that I was pregnant
9. Felt forced to tell people that I was considering ending this pregnancy
10. Felt forced to wait to end this pregnancy after I had made a decision
Others' Reactions
11. I felt worried about my parent(s)' or guardian(s)' reaction to the pregnancy
12. I felt worried about my friends' or other family members' reaction to my pregnancy
Response Options:
Not at all - 0
A little bit - 1
Somewhat - 2
Very - 3
Mean of all items (sum of all answered items divided by the total number of items answered) is calculated and similarly scored for each sub-scale. In scoring the full scale, only scored responses for people who had responded to at least 8 out of the 12 total items, and who had completed over half of the items for each subscale (3 out of 4 items for Factor 1, 2 out of 3 items for Factors 2 and 3, and both items for Factor 4).
Biggs, M. A., Neilands, T. B., Kaller, S., Wingo, E., & Ralph, L. J. (2020). Developing and validating the Psychosocial Burden among people Seeking Abortion Scale (PB-SAS). PLoS One, 15(12), e0242463. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0242463
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