Development and psychometric properties of the maternal ambivalence scale in spanish women

Abstract

Background: maternal ambivalence, which refers to experiencing mixed emotions about motherhood, like happiness and sadness, is frequent during the perinatal period. Aim: Due to the relevance of this topic and the lack of psychometrically-sound instruments to measure it, this study aims to develop and test a measure of maternal ambivalence called the Maternal Ambivalence Scale (MAS). Methods: in this cross-sectional, observational study, participants were 1424 Spanish women recruited online who were either pregnant (33%) or recent mothers of children under 2 years (67%). They responded to the MAS and measures of anxiety and depressive symptoms and life satisfaction. Analyses included exploratory and confirmatory factor solutions for the MAS, internal consistency estimates (Cronbach’s α) for all scales, as well as bivariate correlations to investigate sources of validity evidence. Comparisons between pregnant and postpartum women were also examined. Results: The assumptions for factor analysis about the relationship between items were met (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin’s [KMO] test = 0.90; Barlett’s Chi-square sphericity test = 5853.89, p