School of Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool, L3 3AF, Merseyside, UK.
Department of Psychology, University of Liverpool, Bedford Street South, Liverpool, L69 7ZA, Merseyside, UK.
Arch Womens Ment Health. 2021 Dec;24(6):957-969. doi: 10.1007/s00737-021-01114-7. Epub 2021 Apr 26.
The Postpartum Specific Anxiety Scale (PSAS) is a valid, reliable measure of postpartum anxiety (PPA). However, it contains 51 items, so is limited by its length. This study aimed to reduce the number of items in the PSAS, produce a small number of high-performing short-form tools, and confirm the factor structure of the most statistically and theoretically meaningful model. A pooled sample of English-speaking mothers (N = 2033) with infants up to 12 months were randomly split into three samples. (1) A principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted to initially reduce the items (n = 672). (2) Four short-form versions of varying length (informed by statistical, theoretical, lay-person, and expert-guided feedback) were developed and their factor structure examined (n = 673). (3) A final confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to confirm the factor structure of the PSAS Research Short-Form (PSAS-RSF) (n = 688). PCA and theoretical review reduced the items from 51 to 34 (version 1). Statistical review retained 22 items (version 2). Quantitative expert panel data retained 17 items (version 3). Qualitative expert panel data retained 16 items (version 4). The 16-item version was deemed the most theoretically and psychometrically robust. The resulting 16-item PSAS-RSF demonstrated good psychometric properties and reliability. The PSAS-RSF is the first brief research tool which has been validated to measure PPA. Our findings demonstrate it is theoretically meaningful, statistically robust, reliable, and valid. This study extends the use of the measure up to 12 months postpartum, offering broader opportunity for measurement while further enhancing accessibility through brevity.
产后特定焦虑量表 (PSAS) 是一种有效的、可靠的产后焦虑 (PPA) 测量工具。然而，它包含 51 个项目，因此受到其长度的限制。本研究旨在减少 PSAS 的项目数量，生成少数表现优异的短式工具，并确认最具统计学和理论意义的模型的因子结构。一个由英语母语母亲（N = 2033）组成的婴儿 12 个月以下的混合样本被随机分为三组。(1) 进行主成分分析（PCA）以初步减少项目数量（n = 672）。(2) 开发了四个不同长度的短式版本（基于统计、理论、非专业人员和专家指导反馈），并检查了它们的因子结构（n = 673）。(3) 进行最终验证性因子分析（CFA）以确认 PSAS 研究短式（PSAS-RSF）的因子结构（n = 688）。PCA 和理论回顾将项目从 51 个减少到 34 个（版本 1）。统计审查保留了 22 个项目（版本 2）。定量专家小组数据保留了 17 个项目（版本 3）。定性专家小组数据保留了 16 个项目（版本 4）。16 个项目的版本被认为最具理论和心理测量学稳健性。由此产生的 16 项 PSAS-RSF 表现出良好的心理测量学特性和可靠性。PSAS-RSF 是第一个经过验证的用于测量 PPA 的简短研究工具。我们的研究结果表明它在理论上有意义，在统计学上稳健，可靠且有效。这项研究将该测量工具的使用范围扩展到产后 12 个月，通过简洁性进一步增强了可及性，同时提供了更广泛的测量机会。
