Maternal Postpartum Stress Scale: Translation and validation study of the Chinese version

Objective This study aimed to translate the Maternal Postpartum Stress Scale (MPSS) into Chinese and validate its psychometric properties in postpartum women. Methods A total of 406 postpartum women were recruited from 6 hospitals in Nantong, Jiangsu, China. Cronbach’s α co-efficient, split-half reliability, and test-retest reliability were used to evaluate the reliability of the translated scale. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to evaluate the structural validity of the scale. The Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS), the anxiety subscale of the Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale (DASS-21) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) were used as calibration scales to measure the correlation of MPSS. Results The Cronbach’s α co-efficient of the Chinese version of MPSS was 0.940 and the Cronbach’s α co-efficient of the three subscales ranged from 0.882 to 0.911. The split-half reliability was 0.825, and the test-retest reliability was 0.912. The content validity index of the scale (S-CVI) was 0.926. A total of three common factors were extracted from the EFA. The CFA validated the explored 3-factor structure, and the indicators fitted well (χ 2 /df = 2.167, comparative fit index = 0.918, tucker-lewis index=0.907, incremental fit index=0.919 and root mean square error of approximation = 0.075). Conclusion With superb reliability and validity, the Chinese version of MPSS can be used to assess postpartum stress in Chinese women, which is expected to lay a scientific basis for the early identification of postpartum women’s stress, thus providing a basis for the development of early individualized interventions. Equally importantly, with specific clinical value and practical significance for postpartum women’s physical and mental health, future replication studies of the Chinese version of MPSS should be carried out in diverse samples and clinical populations.