Development of a self-administered questionnaire to measure maternal adjustment and maternal attitudes during pregnancy and after delivery

Abstract

Having a baby entails very great changes in maternal intrapsychic and interpersonal adjustment, and childbearing is associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorder. It may be possible, as pregnancy progresses, to find clues to such disturbances among the changes that occur in maternal attitudes and self-perceptions, This report describes the development and validation of a 60-item, self-administered questionnaire which aims to measure a mother's perceptions of her body, of somatic symptoms, the marital relationship, attitudes to sex and attitudes to the pregnancy and the baby. A pilot study of 99 women in late pregnancy was followed by repeated measures taken from 119 first-time mothers who were subjects in a longitudinal survey of mental health in a routine obstetric service setting. The questionnaire was acceptable to the mothers, it was reliable (test-retest and split-half) and comparisons with independently gathered interview data showed that it had criterion-related validity. The questionnaire is appended to this report (Appendix I).