Psychometric testing of the Chinese version of the Perceived Maternal Parenting Self-Efficacy Scale among postpartum women

Background: Maternal parenting self-efficacy plays a critical role in facilitating positive parenting practices and successful adaption to motherhood. The Perceived Maternal Parenting Self-Efficacy Scale (PMPS-E), as a task-specific measure, confirms its psychometric properties in cultural contexts. Compared with other tools, the advantages of the PMPS-E are as follows: (i) specific context or time period during the lifespan of a child, (ii) explicitly assess parenting self-efficacy across a diverse enough range of parenting tasks or activities during the perinatal/postnatal period and (iii) having robust psychometric properties. The aim of this study was to translate and determine the psychometric properties of the PMPS-E among Chinese postpartum women (C-PMPS-E).

Method: The cross-cultural adaptation process followed Beaton et al.'s intercultural debugging guidelines. A total of 471 women were included to establish the psychometric properties of the C-PMPS-E. Mothers were asked to complete the C-PMPS-E, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) and several demographic questions. The psychometric testing of the C-PMPS-E was established through item analysis, construct validity and internal consistency reliability.

Results: Item analysis showed that the critical ratios of all items were greater than 3 between the low-score group and high-score group, and all item-total correlation coefficients were greater than 0.4. The fit indices showed that the original correlated four-factor model of C-PMPS-E was observed to be an excellent fit to the data. The PMPS-E was negatively correlated with the EPDS and GAD-7 demonstrating its discriminant validity. As expected, no significant correlation was found between PMPS-E total or subscale scores and mothers' age. In addition, statistically significant differences for parity were detected for C-PMPS-E total and subscale scores with multipara having higher scores. This was taken as further evidence of the scale known-groups discriminant validity. In terms of internal consistency, the Cronbach's alpha of the C-PMPS-E total scale was 0.950, and subscales ranged from 0.76 to 0.89. Furthermore, a ROC curve analysis was conducted to establish the ability of the C-PMPS-E to distinguish between symptoms of depression and symptoms of anxiety. A cut-off value of 55 was identified that resulted in good specificity and fair sensitivity.

Conclusion: The C-PMPS-E is a reliable and valid tool to assess maternal parenting self-efficacy in a Chinese context.