Escalas de autoaceitação para gestantes e mulheres no pós-parto: desenvolvimento e avaliação psicométrica

Abstract

During the pregnancy and the postpartum period, women undergo numerous biopsychosocial changes. Self-acceptance is the acceptance of one’s own attributes, no matter if they are negative or positive, with the appreciation of the qualities. This construct is an important means of developing positive body image and can influence on maternal health as well as the child’s health. Nevertheless, there is a current knowledge gap regarding the self-acceptance of pregnant and postpartum women, what can possibly be related to the lack of validated and reliable instruments to evaluate it in this context. The aim was to develop and evaluate the psychometric qualities of two self-acceptance evaluative scales for Brazilian pregnant women and postpartum women. The development of this thesis consists of three stages. In stage 1, items based on literature review, previous scales, and four focus groups. A total of 14 pregnant women, from 28 and 40 years old (M = 33.43; SD = 3.76), and four postpartum women, from 28 and 35 years old (M = 33.33; SD = 3.53) took part. In total, initially 108 items were developed in order to compose a single scale. The instructions, the format and the response options were also developed. In stage 2, the content validity was evaluated by nine experts and 60 representatives of the target population aged 18 to 40 years old (M = 28.23; SD = 5.36). Some items were excluded and others were modified. Stages 3 and 4 analyzed the empirical and psychometric qualities in a sample of 1254 pregnant women between 18 and 52 years old (M = 29.00; SD = 4.77) and 607 postpartum women 18 and 44 years old (M = 29.09; SD = 4.78) of the five regions of Brazil. Exploratory and confirmatory factorial analyzes were conducted with independent samples. The “Self-Acceptance Scale for Pregnant Women” (SAS-PW) is composed of 17 items and two-factors: 1) Body Acceptance, and 2) Pregnancy Acceptance. The “Self-Acceptance Scale for Postpartum Women” (SAS-PPW) is composed of 14 items divided in three-factors: 1) Body Acceptance, 2) Body Avoidance, and 3) Concerning with Appearance. Both scales presented indicators of convergent and discriminant validity, and, from the established cut-off point, three classifications are possible: low, moderate and high selfacceptance. The SAS-PW and SAS-PPW demonstrated good psychometric qualities for Brazilian pregnant and postpartum women, respectively, and their use is indicated for these populations.