The structure of emotional symptoms in the postpartum period: is it unique?

In perinatal mental health there is a lack of consensus as to whether postpartum emotional disorders are unique in their aetiology and clinical presentation. If the clinical presentation is unique, then the factor structure should be different in a postpartum sample.

Admission and discharge scores on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS; Lovibond and Lovibond, 1995b) scores were collected for 527 inpatients admitted to a Psychiatric Mother and Baby Unit. Reliability and validity of the DASS were examined, and confirmatory factor analysis evaluated the fit of a series of models of the DASS.

The DASS had sound reliability and validity in the postpartum inpatient sample. The optimal fitting factor solution for the DASS was a revised three-factor model previously supported in studies of other clinical and non-clinical populations. The factor structure was invariant across admission and discharge.

The sample consisted of postpartum inpatients and the generalisability of results to other postpartum samples is not known.

Postpartum emotional symptoms have the same factor structure previously observed in non-postpartum populations, consistent with the hypothesis that postpartum emotional disorders are similar to those occurring at other times. The present study provides support for the reliability and validity of the DASS in the postpartum period.