Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale (PASS) in a sample of Chilean mothers

Background and Aim: Maternal mental health difficulties during the perinatal period are prevalent and have a negative impact on both women and their infants. Universal perinatal mental health screening has focused primarily on symptoms of depression, with limited attention given to anxiety, despite its high prevalence. This is partly due to the lack of valid maternal anxiety symptom screening tools. The aim of this study was to assess the factor structure, validity, and reliability of the Spanish version of the Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale. Participants and Method: 265 women participated in the study, 138 of them were assessed during their third trimester of pregnancy and 127 at 3 months postpartum. An Exploratory Factor Analysis was used to examine the factor structure of the PASS, the number of factors was determined using a Velicer MAP test. Results: A four-factor solution was obtained, which slightly differed from the original version of the instrument. High reliability for the subscales and the global score, as well as adequate validity, and test-retest reliability were observed. Conclusions: The Spanish version of the Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale has good psychometric properties, which warrants its use in Chile. Future studies are needed to assess the validity of the instrument in other Latin-American contexts.