Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
Institute for Systems Medicine (ISM), Faculty of Medicine, Medical School Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.
BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2024 Nov 26;24(1):789. doi: 10.1186/s12884-024-06964-4.
Forming an emotional bond towards the infant is an important developmental aspect of the mother-child relationship. Two questionnaires frequently used for the assessment of mother-infant bonding, namely the Maternal Postnatal Attachment Scale (MPAS) and the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ), have shown inconclusive psychometric properties. To ensure comparability of results across studies, it is crucial to examine the replicability of psychometric properties and previously proposed factor structures of measurements when adapted to other languages.
The study aim was to investigate the psychometric properties of the German versions of both MPAS and PBQ, across three different German-speaking study samples.
Maternal data from three longitudinal studies from Hamburg, Germany (PAULINE-PRINCE study, N = 229), and Dresden, Germany (MARI study, N = 286; DREAM study, N = 1,968), were used to investigate the psychometric properties (descriptive statistics, item difficulty, inter-item correlations) and the factorial structure (confirmatory factor analysis, CFA; principal axis factoring, PAF) of both MPAS and PBQ. Correlations with maternal-fetal bonding, adult romantic attachment style, attachment style to one's own mother, postpartum depressive symptoms, and education level were investigated.
Across the three samples, both MPAS and PBQ showed convincing results regarding the psychometric properties for their total scores, with satisfying to excellent internal consistencies. A strong correlation between the MPAS and PBQ total scores was observed (r=-.71, p < .001). In PAF, for both questionnaires, factor structures on subscale level differed across samples and assessment points. For MPAS and PBQ total scores, significant small to medium-sized associations in the expected directions with maternal-fetal bonding and depressive symptoms, as well as for MPAS with adult romantic attachment style, and for PBQ with attachment towards one's own mother were found. In two samples, higher educated participants reported less optimal MIB.
The results across the three included samples provide evidence for the validity of the construct assessed with the German adaptations of both MPAS and PBQ. However, the factor analytical results on subscale level highlight the need to further investigate the concept of mother-infant bonding in the first year after birth as well as to develop instruments applicable for use in clinical and community samples with satisfying psychometric properties.
与婴儿建立情感联系是母婴关系中一个重要的发展方面。两个常用于评估母婴结合的问卷，即产后母婴依恋量表（MPAS）和产后依恋问卷（PBQ），其心理测量学特性尚无定论。为确保研究结果具有可比性，当这些问卷被翻译成其他语言时，必须检查其心理测量特性和先前提出的测量因子结构的可重复性。
本研究旨在调查德国版 MPAS 和 PBQ 在三个不同德语研究样本中的心理测量特性。
使用来自德国汉堡的三个纵向研究（PAULINE-PRINCE 研究，N=229）和德国德累斯顿的两个研究（MARI 研究，N=286；DREAM 研究，N=1968）的母亲数据，来研究 MPAS 和 PBQ 的心理测量特性（描述性统计、项目难度、项目间相关性）和因子结构（验证性因子分析、CFA；主成分因子分析、PAF）。同时还研究了它们与母婴结合、成人浪漫依恋风格、对自己母亲的依恋风格、产后抑郁症状和教育水平的相关性。
在这三个样本中，MPAS 和 PBQ 的总分都表现出令人信服的心理测量特性，具有令人满意的内部一致性。MPAS 和 PBQ 的总分之间存在很强的相关性（r=-.71，p<.001）。在 PAF 中，对于两个问卷，在子量表水平上的因子结构在样本和评估点之间存在差异。对于 MPAS 和 PBQ 的总分，与母婴结合和抑郁症状，以及与成人浪漫依恋风格（MPAS）和对自己母亲的依恋风格（PBQ）的预期方向都存在显著的小到中等关联。在两个样本中，受教育程度较高的参与者报告了不太理想的 MIB。
这三个纳入样本的结果为德国版 MPAS 和 PBQ 的构建效度提供了证据。然而，子量表水平的因子分析结果突出表明，需要进一步研究产后第一年母婴结合的概念，并开发具有满意心理测量特性的适用于临床和社区样本的工具。
