The Factor Structure of the Pregnancy Anxiety Scale

• Published in: Journal of health and social behavior 1991-12, Vol.32 (4), p.368-381
• Main Author: Levin, Jeffrey S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anxiety; Biological and medical sciences; Childbirth; Emotions; Evaluation Studies as Topic; Factor analysis; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Factor Structure; Female; Hispanics; Humans; Marital Status; Medical sciences; Modeling; Models, Psychological; Mothers; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications - diagnosis; Pregnancy Complications - epidemiology; Pregnancy outcome; Psychological Tests - standards; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics; Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reproducibility of Results; Scales; Social behavior; Social research; Stress, Psychological - diagnosis; Stress, Psychological - epidemiology; Techniques and methods; Texas
• ISSN: 0022-1465; 2150-6000
• DOI: 10.2307/2137104

This paper presents a measurement model of a ten-item scale of maternal anxiety during pregnancy. Using confirmatory factor analysis, its reliability and validity are examined in a hospital sample of mothers (N = 266) surveyed postpartum in Galveston, Texas. According to several indices of overall fit as well as individual parameter estimates, a latent internal structure of three interrelated dimensions is confirmed for the scale items. These first-order constructs are anxiety about being pregnant, childbirth, and hospitalization. This model exhibits a considerably better fit than both a no-factors model and a model in which the dimensions are uncorrelated. Finally, several exogenous constructs expected to be associated with pregnancy anxiety–age, marital status, and worry over health–exert significant effects on dimensions of the model or on a second-order factor.