A survey of worries of pregnant women: reliability and validity of the Greek version of the Cambridge Worry Scale.

OBJECTIVE

to examine the psychometric properties of the Greek version of the Cambridge Worry Scale (CWS) and to assess worries during pregnancy.

SETTING

public hospital in Athens, Greece.

DESIGN

a cross sectional study.

PARTICIPANTS

one hundred and thirty two pregnant women with a gestational age between 11 and 14 weeks who were booked for antenatal screening.

METHODS

CWS was 'forward-backward' translated from English into Greek. The translated instrument was pilot-tested and administered to a sample of 132 pregnant women. Principal component analysis with promax rotation was used to test the factor structure of CWS. Measures of state-trait anxiety (STAI) and depression (CES-D) were used to assess the convergent validity of CWS. Cronbach's α was used to measure internal consistency of the FPI scales.

FINDINGS

results from exploratory factor analysis suggested the existence of four factors. Therefore, the Greek version replicated the original factor structure. Construct validity was confirmed by computing correlations between the CWS factors and conceptually similar constructions of anxiety, and depression. Internal consistency reliability was satisfactory. The major worries that pregnant women referred to were the possibility that something might be wrong with the baby, the process of giving birth, financial issues and the possibility of miscarriage.

CONCLUSION

the CWS was found to have a relatively stable factor structure and satisfactory reliability and convergent and discriminant validity. CWS may enable researchers and clinicians to apply a reliable measure that focuses on worries during pregnancy.