Spanish Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire: further validation and proposal for a reduced version

The present study aims to address the limitations of previous Spanish validation studies of the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ), including limited diagnostic range and clinical severity, and inconsistent factor structures. Specifically, the aim of this further validation is twofold: to evaluate the factor structure of the PBQ in a sample of Spanish mothers to determine a replicable structure, and to validate the Spanish version of both the full PBQ (25 items) and a reduced 14-item version (PBQ14), in a sample of mothers with and without bonding disorders, including a broader range of bonding issues and more severe cases than in previous Spanish validations.

Data were collected from two independent samples of mothers. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on a sample of 364 mothers to assess the validity of previously proposed PBQ factor structures. Additionally, criterion validity was evaluated in a sample of 162 mothers by comparing PBQ scores with bonding disorder diagnoses obtained through the Stafford Interview.

The findings confirm the validity of both the 25-item Spanish version (PBQ25) and the 14-item Japanese version (PBQ14) within the Spanish population. In the second sample, optimal total score cut-off points were identified: 19 or higher for the PBQ25 and 14 or higher for the PBQ14.

This study further validates the Spanish version of the PBQ, confirming the factorial validity of the PBQ25 and proposing the PBQ14 as a short, versatile, and clinically useful screening tool for detecting mother-infant bonding disorders in the Spanish population.