Postpartum depression screening scale: Development and psychometric testing

Background: Approximately 400,000 mothers in the United States experience p ostpartum depression each year. However, only a small proportion of these w omen are identified as depressed by health care professionals. Objectives: To improve detection of this postpartum mood disorder, the purp ose of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of a newly devi sed instrument, the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS), a 35-item Likert-type self-report instrument. Methods: Content validity was supported through the literature and the judg ments rendered by a panel of five content experts and a focus group. The PD SS was administered to 525 new mothers. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis provided empirical support for the ex istence of the hypothesized seven dimensions. A Tucker-Lewis goodness-of-fi t index of 0.87 and a root mean square residual of 0.05 were judged support ive of model fit. Item response theory techniques provided further construc t validity support for finer interpretations of the respective seven dimens ions. Analysis of the Likert 5-point response categories further supported meaningful score interpretations. Alpha internal consistency reliabilities ranged from 0.83 (sleeping/eating disturbances) to 0.94 (loss of self). Conclusions: Empirically, all of the reliability and validity analyses supp orted the score interpretations posited for the PDSS. Currently, the sensit ivity, specificity, and positive predictive value of the PDSS are being det ermined.