Construct validity and psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the City Birth Trauma Scale

Currently, most postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) screening scales used in China are general PTSD scales which are not compiled specifically for pregnant women and thus cannot reflect the unique needs of this population. This study aimed to translate the City Birth Trauma Scale (City BiTS) into Chinese and validate its psychometric characteristics in Chinese postpartum women.

After translation, back-translation, and expert discussion, 596 mothers at 1 to 12 months postpartum filled out the questionnaires through the Internet. The reliability and validity of the translated questionnaire were tested.

The Cronbach's α coefficient of the Chinese version of City BiTS (City BiTS-C) was 0.889, the test-retest reliability was 0.86, and the content validity was 0.93. Exploratory factor analysis extracted two factors accounted for 63.148% of the variance. The City BiTS-C had appropriate construct validity in the Chinese culture (root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = 0.048, <0.05; χ² /df = 2.666, <3). The values of the incremental fit index (IFI) and the Tucker-Lewis coefficient (TLI) were 0.990 and 0.976, which identified that the model was a good fit for the data. The values of the comparative fit index (CFI) and the normed fit index (NFI) were 0.890 and 0.873, respectively.

The City BiTS-C is a reliable and valid measure to screening and diagnosis the postpartum PTSD among new mothers who gave birth in the past year in mainland China.

The City BiTS-C is a short, reliable, and valid instrument that measures the symptoms of postpartum PTSD, and it is recommend for clinical screening.