Psychometric properties of the Maternal Postnatal Attachment Scale and the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire in three German samples

• Published in: BMC pregnancy and childbirth 2024-11, Vol.24 (1), p.789-20, Article 789
• Main Authors: Göbel, Ariane, Lüersen, Lisa, Asselmann, Eva, Arck, Petra, Diemert, Anke, Garthus-Niegel, Susan, Mudra, Susanne, Martini, Julia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Anxiety; Attachment; Behavior; Caregivers; Depression, Postpartum - diagnosis; Depression, Postpartum - psychology; DREAM study; Education; Emotions; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Factor structure; Female; Germany; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Maternal Postnatal Attachment Scale; Mental health; Mother-Child Relations - psychology; Mother-infant bonding; Mothers; Mothers - psychology; Object Attachment; Parent-child relations; Parents & parenting; Post traumatic stress disorder; Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire; Postpartum period; Postpartum Period - psychology; Psychometric properties; Psychometrics; Quantitative psychology; Questionnaires; Reproducibility of Results; Surveys and Questionnaires - standards; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1471-2393; 1471-2393
• 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