To determine the psychometric properties of the Sympathy–Acceptance–Understanding–Caring Competence (SAUC) model questionnaire for foreign-born parents evaluating nursing encounters in the Swedish Primary Child Health Care (PCHC) services.

Multicultural encounters in child health care from the nursing perspective are challenging and problematic worldwide. A suitable theory-based and validated questionnaire is needed for foreign-born parents to assess the quality of their encounters with nurses.

The SAUC questionnaire, modified for use by new, foreign-born parents using the Swedish PCHC services, was evaluated for its congruence with the theory of Confirming Encounter. The study was ethically approved and data were collected between March and August 2009 from 83 new, foreign-born parents seen at 50 clinics.

Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify related factors, and goodness-of-fit tests were used to estimate theoretical consistency. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to verify the results.

The questionnaire had satisfactory theoretical consistency with the theory of Confirming Encounter. Three factors identified by exploratory factor analysis and confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis – person support, self-support, and self-perspective support – indicated internal consistency and validated the three factors implicit in the theory Confirming Encounter. In addition, a new factor, concordance, was identified that is compatible with the theory. To conclude, despite the fact that a modified questionnaire have its limitations results demonstrate that the SAUC-model questionnaire seems to be a reliable and valid nursing quality-control measure with which foreign-born parents can evaluate the qualities of a confirming encounter with nurses. However, we suggest the need for testing the questionnaire in a larger population.