title: The development and psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of the Maternal Attachment Inventory.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop the Maternal Attachment Inventory (MAI) into Chinese and assess its psychometric properties.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The MAI measures of maternal affectionate attachment. This scale displays the most appropriate indicators associated with attachment and has been widely adopted in different fields for measuring maternal-infant attachment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional survey design.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was carried out in two clinics. From the accessible population of 507 samples, a simple random sampling method of selection was used to randomly choose 200 names of mothers at 4-8 months after delivery using a computer. One hundred and eighty-one mothers agreed to participate in the study. The Chinese version of the MAI (CMAI) was developed in five stages: translation, review, back-translation, a review by a panel of specialists and a pilot test. Regarding the reliability of the CMAI, a test of correlations between the subscales and the entire scale was performed consecutively. With respect to the validity of the MAI, exploratory factor analyses, a test of relationships between items and subscales, and an analysis of concurrent criterion-related validity were conducted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The CMAI contains four factors in its structure. The CMAI and its subscales possess good internal consistency; the Cronbach's α coefficient was 0·94. In addition, the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient between the CMAI and the Maternal-Fetal Attachment Inventory (MFAI) and between the CMAI and the Maternal-Infant Attachment Inventory (MIAI) was 0·38 and 0·5, respectively. This suggests significant medium and high respective correlations between the CMAI and these two scales. One major limitation of this study is that participants were recruited from two clinics located in central Taiwan.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The CMAI possesses acceptable reliability and validity for use in measuring the levels of attachment and affectional ties between mothers and their infants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The CMAI provides further evidence of the applicability of the CMAI in clinical maternity care services.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Jen-Teh Junior of Medicine Nursing and Management, Institute of Medical Sciences of Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chen-Jung
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Huei-chuan
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.forename: Yi-Chang
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ching-Yuan
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Ming-Shinn
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D011594:Psychometrics
keywords: Chinese; cross-sectional; maternal attachment inventory; reliability; validity