title: The Postpartum Depression Screening Scale-Spanish version: examining the psychometric properties and prevalence of risk for postpartum depression.
abstract: The Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS) has been recently used to assess postpartum depression (PPD) in ethnic minority women, including Spanish-speaking Latinas from predominantly Mexico and Puerto Rico. Given the heterogeneity in the countries of origin for Spanish-speaking immigrants to the U.S., this study examined the psychometric properties and prevalence of PPD risk of the Spanish version of the PDSS in a sample of Latina immigrant mothers from predominantly El Salvador and other Central American countries. One hundred and 55 Latina immigrants (El Salvador: n = 91, Other Central America: n = 40, Mexico: n = 24) at high risk for PPD, who were part of a preventive intervention trial, participated in this study at 6-8 weeks postpartum. Results indicate that the PDSS had excellent internal consistency. The seven dimensions of the PDSS had good to excellent internal consistencies, with lower alphas for the Anxiety/Insecurity subscale. Approximately two-thirds (63.9%) of the women scored above the clinical cut-off score (> or =60) for combined major/minor PPD on the PDSS-Spanish version. Additional research is needed to further validate the PDSS-Spanish version in clinical research and community settings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA. hnle@gwu.edu
authors.forename: Huynh-Nhu
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Le
authors.forename: Deborah F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.forename: Glorimar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ortiz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002489:Central America / Q000208:ethnology; D019052:Depression, Postpartum / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D004219:District of Columbia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008800:Mexico / Q000208:ethnology; D011247:Pregnancy; D015995:Prevalence; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult