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Measuring Maternal-Fetal Attachment: Model Fit and Measurement Invariance of a New Assessment Tool
Title
Measuring Maternal-Fetal Attachment: Model Fit and Measurement Invariance of a New Assessment Tool
Creator
Hedrick, Laura
Date
2019
Description
The importance of studying Maternal-Fetal Attachment (MFA) as part of the system of maternal-child perinatal functioning is well established...
Show moreThe importance of studying Maternal-Fetal Attachment (MFA) as part of the system of maternal-child perinatal functioning is well established in the literature, as MFA relates to health-related and psychosocial variables both during pregnancy and after the infant is born (e.g., positive health behaviors in pregnancy; levels of maternal stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms; positive parenting behaviors after the child is born; and secure infant attachment at age one year). Despite the apparent value of studying MFA, there is no acceptable measurement tool for the construct. Existing assessment tools often do not meet minimum psychometric standards, may not be practical for broad research application, and have demonstrated inconsistent results in correlational research. Therefore, a clear need exists for a measurement scale with strong psychometric properties that is based on empirically supported development strategies. The present line of research sought to fill this need. The process of developing a new measurement tool began in a previous study, Hedrick (2015), which used Exploratory Factor Analyses to identify options for a potential measurement scale from subsets of a large pool of items intended to measure MFA. In Hedrick (2015), three options were identified as acceptable, then compared based on ranges of communalities, percentage of variance explained, internal consistency, and performance on two measures of concurrent and discriminant validity. However, these assessments failed to differentiate a single option as most preferable. Therefore, the first aim of present study was to complete the task of differentiating among the working measures to choose a measurement scale. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to attempt to determine which working measure from the EFA study had the factor structure that fit best in a second sample of participants. The CFA process was not able to differentiate a superior working measure from the options. Therefore, the most theoretically sound of the three was chosen to use as a measurement tool, with some small adjustments made based on the CFA results. To continue to establish the validity of the new questionnaire measure, the second aim of the study was to assess its measurement invariance among different administration methods and populations. The measurement tool was found to be non-invariant in both areas. Specifically, the results of the measurement invariance analyses indicated that the measure should be administered on paper rather than online, would be best applied in research in African American/Black populations than in research with other racial/ethnic groups, and should not be used to compare MFA scores among racial/ethnic groups. Measurement invariance analyses also revealed that the scale was non-invariant at the metric level regarding parity groups. The implications of these findings for further research is discussed.
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MATERNAL-FETAL ATTACHMENT: CONSTRUCT EXAMINATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW MEASUREMENT SCALE
Title
MATERNAL-FETAL ATTACHMENT: CONSTRUCT EXAMINATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW MEASUREMENT SCALE
Creator
Hedrick, Laura
Date
2015, 2015-05
Description
There has been a recent resurgence of interest in studying maternal-fetal attachment (MFA), and MFA has been correlated with several important...
Show moreThere has been a recent resurgence of interest in studying maternal-fetal attachment (MFA), and MFA has been correlated with several important variables (e.g., parenting behavior and infant attachment). However, there are differing definitions of MFA, and, as a result, widely varying questionnaires have been developed to assess it. Each of these instruments has demonstrated major weaknesses, such as inadequate operational definitions and theoretical rationales, poor reliability or validity, barriers to practical application, and inconsistent results in correlational studies. The purpose of the present study was twofold. The first aim was to examine the latent factors that underlie the existing measures of MFA in order to better understand the potential components of the construct. The second aim was to develop a new measure with greater practical applicability, more thorough and empirically-sound development procedures, and improved reliability and validity relative to existing instruments. All items from extant questionnaires were pooled with novel items based on an interview measure. This bank of 112 items was administered to a diverse sample of 292 women in their second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Exploratory factor analytic (EFA) procedures revealed underlying factors relating to perceived personhood of the fetus or richness of the mother's perceptions of her fetus, affective components, future orientation, focus on the fetus across domains, and caregiving sensitivity. Four different EFA approaches resulted in three viable models for a new measure with interpretable factor structure, acceptable face validity, good internal consistency, and some favorable results in initial concurrent validity analyses. Directions for future research are discussed.
M.S. in Psychology, May 2015
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