Development of a scale for parent-to-baby emotions: Concepts, design, and factor structure

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Parenting Research

Background:

• Infant crying, essential for survival, can negatively impact caregivers.
• Primary emotions, felt directly in response to events, are hypothesized to mediate caregiver responses to infant cries.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a new scale, the Scale for Parent-to-Baby Emotions (SPBE), for measuring basic and self-conscious emotions in parents towards infant cries.
• To assess the psychometric properties of the SPBE, including reliability and measurement invariance.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional web survey was conducted with 879 mothers one month postpartum.
• The Scale for Parent-to-Baby Emotions (SPBE), comprising 73 items, was administered.
• Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to evaluate the scale's structure, with item parcels and omega indices for internal consistency and measurement invariance testing.

Main Results:

• A six-factor bifactor model for basic emotions and a four-factor model for self-conscious emotions demonstrated strong psychometric properties.
• The models showed good fit indices (CFI > 0.968, RMSEA < 0.079).
• The scale exhibited stability across parity in terms of configural, measurement, and structural invariance.

Conclusions:

• The developed Scale for Parent-to-Baby Emotions (SPBE) is a psychometrically robust measure.
• SPBE is a promising tool for assessing primary emotions in parent-to-baby interactions within clinical and research contexts.