Infant, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service-Research Unit, Sydney South West Area Health Service, Liverpool Hospital, Mental Health Centre (L1), Locked Bag 7103, Liverpool BC, NSW 1871, Australia.
Arch Womens Ment Health. 2010 Dec;13(6):477-84. doi: 10.1007/s00737-010-0159-1. Epub 2010 Apr 13.
This study aimed to investigate whether endorsement of "difficulty coping" questions on two self-report measures would be affected by whether or not women had to put their name on the questionnaires. In addition, a small survey of mental health professionals was conducted to see what they thought the study would find. Women (n= 211) attending maternal and child health clinics completed two self-report measures of mood and experience of motherhood. Women were either asked to write their name on the forms and were told that the project officer would check their forms once completed ("named" condition) or asked not to put their name on the forms and that the forms would not be looked at ("anonymous" condition). Perinatal mental health professionals (n= 44) completed an anonymous survey asking them what they considered the study would find. Most health professionals (77.3%) expected that the anonymous condition would result in more "honest" responding by women-that is, there would be a higher rate of women admitting to not coping in the anonymous condition. To the contrary, however, this was not found. There were no differences between the rates of endorsement of "not currently coping" by women in the two conditions, a finding only expected by 13.6% of the professionals. There was a small, but statistically significant, difference in women reporting whether they had a prior history of difficulty coping, with more women in the named condition endorsing this. Rates of postnatal distress or depression, based upon responses to self-report mood or similar questionnaires, are unlikely to be affected by whether participants are required to put their name on the measures or not or whether they anticipate that their responses will be scrutinized. This is an unexpected finding by a sample of mental health professionals interested in the perinatal mental health field, and thus, the study has "new knowledge" significance.
本研究旨在探讨在两份自我报告量表上对“难以应对”问题的认可是否会受到女性是否需要在问卷上署名的影响。此外，还对心理健康专业人员进行了一项小型调查，以了解他们认为该研究将发现什么。在母婴健康诊所就诊的女性（n=211）完成了两份情绪和母亲经历的自我报告量表。女性要么被要求在表格上写上自己的名字，并被告知项目官员一旦完成表格就会检查（“记名”条件），要么被要求不要在表格上写上自己的名字，并且表格不会被查看（“匿名”条件）。44 名围产期心理健康专业人员（n=44）完成了一项匿名调查，询问他们认为该研究将发现什么。大多数卫生专业人员（77.3%）预计匿名条件会导致女性更“诚实地”回应，也就是说，在匿名条件下，更多的女性会承认自己无法应对。然而，事实并非如此。在两种情况下，女性对“目前无法应对”的认可率没有差异，只有 13.6%的专业人员预计会出现这种情况。在报告是否有先前难以应对的经历方面，记名组的女性略有但具有统计学意义的差异，记名组中有更多的女性表示有此经历。基于对自我报告情绪或类似问卷的反应，产后困扰或抑郁的发生率不太可能受到参与者是否需要在测量措施上签名或是否预期他们的反应将受到审查的影响。这是对关注围产期心理健康领域的心理健康专业人员样本的一个意外发现，因此，该研究具有“新知识”意义。
