RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Academic motivation is the psychological factor that promotes learning activities. The persistence of learning activities in nursing education is directly influenced by academic motivation. However, there are currently no specialist instruments for nursing students in China. OBJECTIVE: To translate the Motivation for nursing student scale (MNSS) into Chinese and evaluate its validity and reliability among nursing students in China. DESIGN: A quantitative and cross-sectional design. SETTING: The survey was conducted at a medical university in Jinzhou, China between March and May 2022. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 688 Chinese nursing students were surveyed by questionnaire in this study. METHOD: The Chinese version of MNSS adopted Brislin's transition model and conducted expert consultations to validate the facial validity and testing of the transition version. Reliability and validity were tested using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and internal consistency reliability. RESULTS: Nursing experts confirm the high content validity of the Chinese version of the 20-item scale. An exploratory factorial analysis revealed a four-factor solution, with a total variance of 64.1% and confirmatory factor analysis results showed a satisfactory fit (χ2/df=2.738, RMSEA =0.073, SRMR = 0.0719, CFI = 0.914, IFI = 0.915, NFI =0.872, RFI =0.849,). Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the scale was 0.869, and the split-half reliability is 0.727. CONCLUSION: The Chinese version of MNSS has satisfactory reliability and validity and is a reliable instrument to assess the academic motivation of Chinese nursing students.