Adaptação da escala de pensamentos automáticos negativos pós-parto para a população portuguesa: Estudos psicométricos

Abstract

Negative automatic thoughts play an important role in depressive symptoms, namely in the postpartum period. This study aimed to adapt the Postnatal Negative Thoughts Questionnaire (PNTQ) for the Portuguese population, which was developed to assess the frequency of negative thoughts in postpartum period, and to examine its psychometric properties. The sample consisted of 387 postpartum women who answer to a cross-sectional survey. Confirmatory factor analysis suggests that the Portuguese version had a two-dimensional structure: (1) Appraisals of Cognitions, Emotions and Situations (ACES), and (2) Baby-Related and Motherhood Negative Thoughts (BRMNT). Internal consistency is .90 and .75 for the ACES and BRMNT factors, respectively. EPANP correlates positively with depressive symptoms and negative thoughts, and negatively with self-compassion and positive automatic thoughts. Finally, the EPANP scores were found to be different as a function of the presence/absence of depressive symptomatology and the presence/absence of depressive history. The PNTQ presents good indicators of convergent and known-groups validity and good reliability.