The reliability and validity of the Bethlem Mother-Infant Interaction Scale.
BACKGROUND
The Bethlem Scale was designed as a validated measure of mother-infant adjustment in mother-baby units.


METHODS
A multi-centre trial was conducted to investigate aspects of the reliability, validity and clinical usefulness of the Bethlem Mother-infant Interaction Scale within five in-patient psychiatric mother-baby units.


RESULTS
This revealed good inter-rater, test-retest and inter-item reliability. Correlations of the scale items with psychiatrist's ratings and changes in scoring over time suggest reasonable validity, despite some design problems with individual items.


CONCLUSIONS
Mother-infant interaction scales may have an important role in improving the quality of care for mothers and their babies in the psychiatric setting. The development of a more extensive scale, the Monash Mother-Infant interaction Scale, is discussed.
Stocky
A J
AJ
Department of Adult Psychiatry, Monash Medical Centre, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
Tonge
B J
BJ
Nunn
R J
RJ
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D015588:Observer Variation; D010343:Patient Admission; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011567:Psychiatric Department, Hospital; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results