The postpartum depression literacy scale (PoDLiS): development and psychometric properties

Area of Science:

• Women's Health
• Maternal Mental Health
• Psychometrics

Background:

• Maternal mental health, including postpartum mental health, is crucial for overall women's health.
• Assessing postpartum depression literacy is vital for timely intervention and support.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a specific measure for assessing postpartum depression literacy.
• To evaluate the psychometric properties of the developed questionnaire in perinatal women.

Main Methods:

• The study involved two stages: measure development and psychometric evaluation.
• An item pool was created, refined through content and face validity assessments, resulting in the 39-item Postpartum Depression Literacy Scale (PoDLis).
• Psychometric properties were examined in 692 perinatal women using principal component and confirmatory factor analyses.

Main Results:

• The final 31-item PoDLis demonstrated a 7-factor structure, explaining key constructs of postpartum depression literacy.
• Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the scale's structure.
• The scale exhibited good internal consistency, with a Cronbach's alpha of .78 for the total scale and .70-.83 for its factors.

Conclusions:

• The Postpartum Depression Literacy Scale (PoDLis) is a reliable and valid instrument.
• PoDLis can be effectively utilized in research and clinical settings to measure postpartum depression literacy in women.
• This validated scale contributes to the assessment of mental health literacy among women.