Cross-cultural development and psychometric evaluation of a measure to assess fear of childbirth prior to pregnancy

• Published in: Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare
• Main Authors: Stoll, Kathrin, Hauck, Yvonne, Downe, Soo, Edmonds, Joyce, Gross, Mechthild Maria, Malott, Anne, McNiven, Patricia, Swift, Emma, Thomson, Gillian, Hall, Wendy A.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2016
• Subjects: Childbirth fear; Cross-cultural; Psychometrics; Cross-Cultural comparison; Parturition; 618: Geburtsmedizin und Hebammenarbeit; 618.4: Geburt; Canada; Iceland
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/11475/8153; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.srhc.2016.02.004; https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/8153

Background: Assessment of childbirth fear, in advance of pregnancy, and early identification of modifiable factors contributing to fear can inform public health initiatives and/or school-based educational programming for the next generation of maternity care consumers. We developed and evaluated a short fear of birth scale that incorporates the most common dimensions of fear reported by men and women prior to pregnancy, fear of: labour pain, being out of control and unable to cope with labour and birth, complications, and irreversible physical damage. Methods: University students in six countries (Australia, Canada, England, Germany, Iceland, and the United States, n = 2240) participated in an online survey to assess their fears and attitudes about birth. We report internal consistency reliability, corrected-item-to-total correlations, factor loadings and convergent and discriminant validity of the new scale. Results: The Childbirth Fear – Prior to Pregnancy (CFPP) scale showed high internal consistency across samples (α > 0.86). All corrected-item-to total correlations exceeded 0.45, supporting the uni-dimensionality of the scale. Construct validity of the CFPP was supported by a high correlation between the new scale and a two-item visual analogue scale that measures fear of birth (r > 0.6 across samples). Weak correlations of the CFPP with scores on measures that assess related psychological states (anxiety, depression and stress) support the discriminant validity of the scale.