Spanish validation of an inventory of daily hassles and uplift scale in a population of pregnant women

Abstract

Introduction: Maternal psychosocial stress has been associated with adverse perinatal outcomes. Much research is focused on stimuli measurement, other approaches include consideration of the interaction between environmental demands and the power of the individual to deal with these demands, less attention has been paid to constructive thinking. The Combined Daily Hassles and Uplifts Scale (CDHUS) is a particularly attractive tool for use in research, because it allows the analysis of a wide spectrum of factors that can be both stressful and comforting. As most scales have been developed in English-speaking, the aim of this study was to carry out a cross-cultural validation and adaptation of the CDHUS during each trimester of pregnancy. Participants, ethics and methods: To produce a target language version that is conceptually equivalent to the source instrument the repeated forward–backward translation procedure was adopted. A cross sectional study was performed to evaluate the psychometric features of the instrument in pregnant women with singleton pregnancy aged 19-45 years. STAI, PSS, and EQ-5d were used to assess convergent validity. Results: 257 questionnaires were available for analysis. General content validity index (CVI) was 0.61. The was a moderate correlation between the CDHUS and the other scales. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the scale of problems was 0.89. A principal component analysis showed six differentiated factors. Conclusion: This work yielded a Spanish version of the CDHUS, which showed good reliability and construct validity. The instrument can be used in future research within the field of psychosocial stress and adverse gestational outcomes.