The reliability and validity of the Bethlem Mother-Infant Interaction Scale.

BACKGROUND

The Bethlem Scale was designed as a validated measure of mother-infant adjustment in mother-baby units.

METHOD

A multi-centre trial was conducted to investigate aspects of the reliability, validity and clinical usefulness of the Bethlem Mother-infant Interaction Scale within five in-patient psychiatric mother-baby units.

RESULTS

This revealed good inter-rater, test-retest and inter-item reliability. Correlations of the scale items with psychiatrist's ratings and changes in scoring over time suggest reasonable validity, despite some design problems with individual items.

CONCLUSION

Mother-infant interaction scales may have an important role in improving the quality of care for mothers and their babies in the psychiatric setting. The development of a more extensive scale, the Monash Mother-Infant interaction Scale, is discussed.