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Abstract
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The Vulnerable Personality Style Questionnaire (VPSQ) is a self-report scale designed to identify women at risk for postpartum depression due to personality vulnerability. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate factor structure, validity and reliability indicators of the Vulnerable Personality Questionnaire and its effect on postpartum depression in Iranian women. The design of this research was cross-sectional-descriptive. The statistical population of this study were women with postpartum depression in Isfahan. Three hundred women with postpartum depression were randomly selected from women with postpartum depression in Isfahan. They were selected based on their performance on the following questionnaires; the Vulnerable Personality Style Questionnaire of Boyce et al. (2004), and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (1978). The results of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) showed that the questionnaire has a two-factor structure. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the two dimensions of vulnerability and organization was 0.87 and 0.705 respectively, which showed that the reliability of the questionnaire is suitable. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that after controlling demographic variables (age, mother's education, father's occupation and family income), vulnerable personality has a significant effect on postpartum depression (β = ٠.٥٠٣, p < ٠.٠٠١). It seems that the Vulnerable Personality Style Questionnaire has appropriate psychometric indices and this tool can be used to predict postpartum depression in women, and prevent its negative consequences IntroductionPostpartum depression is the most common mental illness during pregnancy (Maliszewska et al., 2017). Its common symptoms include anxiety, worry, panic, tension, irritability, sleep disorders and changes in appetite (Alsheikh Ahmad et al., 2021). Based on the vulnerability-stress model, risk factors for postpartum depression can be divided into several main categories: socio-psychosocial, clinical, personality or temperamental characteristics (Ambrosini et al., 2011).Previous studies have shown linked personality and postpartum depression components (Iliadis et al., 2015) and have shown that a combination of the characteristics of avoidant, dependent and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders create a vulnerable personality style. In fact, the vulnerable personality style provides a basis for the development of postpartum depression by affecting coping strategies for stressful conditions (Joyce et al., 2003).According to Boyce et al. (2001), standard personality assessment instruments were too broad and measured a limited number of personality traits, making them difficult to be used in epidemiological studies. To overcome this limitation, they designed a brief questionnaire called the Vulnerable Personality Style Questionnaire (VPSQ), which assessed nine personality traits associating vulnerability to postpartum depression in terms of being coping, nervous, scared, sensitive, worried, organized, obsessive, expressive and unstable.The results of factor analysis in the study of Boyce et al. (2001) showed that the Vulnerable Personality Style Questionnaire has two components of "vulnerability" and " being organized/responsive" (Boyce and Hickey 2005). Dennis and Boyce (2004) confirmed the results of the previous research. Gelabert et al. (2011) confirmed the single-factor structure of the questionnaire in their research. However, the psychometric properties of the questionnaire have not been examined in domestic studies so far. Considering this contradiction between the findings of the previous studies, the purpose of the present study is to examine the psychometric properties of the Vulnerable Personality Style Questionnaire (Boyce et al., 2004) in the Iranian population, so that a reliable scale in the field of structural measurement could be available to domestic researchers.
METHODThe research has a correlational design. The statistical population included all mothers with children who aged between one to six months in Esfahan city; a sample of 350 people were randomly selected and finally 300 questionnaires were analyzed based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data collection tools in this research were the questionnaires of vulnerable personality and postpartum depression.Vulnerable Personality Style Questionnaire (Boyce et al., 2004) has nine items with a 5-point Likert scale (from completely disagree to completely agree). Its validity and reliability have been confirmed in various studies. In this study, the researcher adopted the Persian version of the Vulnerable Personality Style Questionnaire.Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EDPS) by Cox et al. (1978) consisted of 10 questions with a three-point Likert scale. It has been used many times for the purpose of research on depression diagnosis criteria. Its validity and reliability have been confirmed in various studies.To translate the vulnerable personality questionnaire (Boyce et al., 2004), the back-translation method was used. Then it was performed on a preliminary sample of 30 people and after approving the final form, the entire sample completed the questionnaire. SPSS 23 statistical software was used to analyze the data and examine the factor structure, reliability and validity indicators of the Vulnerable Personality Questionnaire.
FINDINGSTo perform exploratory factor analysis, the value of Bartlett's test of Sphericity was equal to 1838.007 (p<0.001) and the KMO coefficient was equal to 0.81. Therefore, the indices in the data matrix were significant and the sample size was suitable for factor analysis. The results of exploratory factor analysis were extracted using the principal components method and with varimax or orthogonal rotation of two factors with an eigenvalue greater than one, which explains nearly 68.61% of the total variance of the scale. It can also be seen that the factor loadings of the questions are higher than 0.4 and accordingly acceptable. Therefore, it can be said that the questionnaire has two factors, vulnerability and organization.The results of reliability indicators using Cronbach's alpha coefficient in the vulnerability dimension were 0.871 and in the organization dimension 0.705, which indicated the adequate reliability of the questionnaire.The results of the hierarchical regression analysis showed that by controlling the demographic characteristics including age, mother's education, father's occupation and family income, the vulnerable personality has a significant effect on postpartum depression (p<0.001) and can predict nearly 24.6% of that. According to the standardized beta coefficients obtained here, it can be said that by adding one unit to the vulnerable personality, 0.503 standard deviations are added to women's postpartum depression. Therefore, it cannot be concluded that the Vulnerable Personality Style Questionnaire has a good predictive validity and has been able to significantly predict postpartum depression.
DISCUSSION and conclusionThe purpose of the present research was to investigate the factor structure, validity and reliability indicators of the Vulnerablevalidity of the scale, the results indicated the existence of two factors. The results of the reliability indicator of the questionnaire also showed that the reliability coefficients for the dimensions of the questionnaire were acceptable. The results of the regression analysis showed that the vulnerable personality questionnaire had a good predictive validity for predicting postpartum depression.This finding is in line with the research of Boyce et al. (2001) and Dennis and Boyce (2004), who showed that this questionnaire contains two factors. The first dimension, the vulnerable personality, includes traits that are related to vulnerability; in particular, negative personality traits such as anxiety, worry, sensitivity, volatility, and obsession. People with different personality styles use specific coping strategies against the stresses of life, and as a result, have a certain level of health. Vulnerable personality style also provides the basis for postpartum depression by influencing stress coping strategies (Akman et al., 2007).In general, according to the findings of this research, it can be concluded that this questionnaire has sufficient validity and reliability to be applied in Iranian society. Its limitations include the age limit of mothers, the level of mothers' education and the selection of the type of delivery in the sample; therefore, one should be careful in generalizing the results to other groups.
Language: en |