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Assessing prenatal attachment in a sample of Italian women.\ud \ud The term prenatal attachment refers to the affective investment that parents develop towards the unborn baby during the gestation period. Recent research supports the idea that the early relationship between the woman and the child she’s bearing is related to the quality of postnatal mother–infant interaction and\ud to the improvement of the woman’s health behaviour in pregnancy. This study\ud focuses on the process of the woman’s bonding with her foetus and aims to assess\ud the psychometric properties of the Italian translation of Prenatal Attachment\ud Inventory (PAI). The PAI was translated into Italian and administered to a\ud sample of 214 low-risk pregnant women. As prenatal attachment is supposed to\ud measure the mother’s capability to emotionally invest in the foetus, the Toronto\ud Alexithymia Scale was also administered to assess the pregnant women’s\ud alexithymia level. The results illustrate that the Italian version of the PAI\ud maintains the main psychometric characteristics of the original version.\ud Explorative factor analysis suggested a five-factor structure. The association\ud between low level prenatal attachment and high level alexithymia may be of\ud interest in mother–infant wellbeing promotion programmes.\ud Keywords: attachment theory; alexithymia; prenatal attachment inventor

Background Global crises inevitably increase levels of anxiety in postpartum populations. Effective and efficient measurement is therefore essential. This study aimed to create a 12-item research short form of the 51-item Postpartum Specific Anxiety Scale [PSAS] and validate it for use in rapid response research at a time of global crises [PSAS-RSF-C]. We also present the same 12-items, in five other languages (Italian, French, Chinese, Spanish, Dutch) to increase global accessibility of a psychometric tool to assess maternal mental health. Methods Twelve items from the PSAS were selected on the basis of a review of their factor loadings. An on-line sample of UK mothers (N = 710) of infants up to 12 weeks old completed the PSAS-RSF-C during COVID-19 ‘lockdown’. Results Principal component analyses on a randomly split sample (n = 344) revealed four factors, identical in nature to the original PSAS, which in combination explained 75% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analyses (n = 366) demonstrated the four-factor model fit the data well. Reliability of the overall scale and of the underlying factors in both samples proved excellent. Conclusions Findings suggest the PSAS-RSF-C may prove useful as a clinical screening tool and is the first postpartum-specific psychometric scale to be validated during the COVID-19 pandemic. This offers psychometrically sound assessment of postpartum anxiety. By increasing the accessibility of the PSAS, we aim to enable researchers the opportunity to measure maternal anxiety, rapidly, at times of global crisis.

BackgroundResilience focuses on strength under stress, in the context of adversity. Walsh’s theoretical model identifies relational processes that allow families to tackle and overcome critical situations, dividing them into three domains of family function. The aim of this study was to assess resilience in families of patients with a chronic disease by adapting and validating the Italian version of the Walsh Family Resilience Questionnaire (Walsh-IT).Patients and methodsAn Italian adult sample of 421 participants (patients and relatives) was collected with the aim to assess the reliability and validity of the Walsh-IT. Concurrent validity was carried out by comparing this instrument with the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale III (FACES III) administered at the same time as the Walsh-IT.ResultsReliability showed high correlation between repeated measurements. The alpha coefficient was 0.946. Both parallel analysis and minimum average partial criteria suggested that the best number of domains is equal to 3, explaining 50.4% of the total variance. Based on the results obtained from the Rasch analysis, items 10, 11, 16, 22, and 23 have been removed resulting in a short-form questionnaire (Walsh-IT-R) of 26 items with three domains: shared beliefs and support (SBS, α=0.928); family organization and interaction (FOI, α=0.863); and utilization of social resources (USR, α=0.567). The total score of the Walsh-IT-R was strongly correlated with the total score of FACES III Real Family Scale (r=0.68; p<0.0001).ConclusionResults support that the Walsh-IT-R is a valid instrument for the assessment of family resilience in Italy when contending with the challenges of chronic disease. It could be used in pre- and post-assessment in practice effectiveness research, offering a profile of family resilience processes at the start and end of interventions and follow-up.

Objective: The aim of the study is to investigate the known risk factors of antenatal depression focusing on the woman's intrapersonal and interpersonal characteristics, particularly her early experience of the parent-child relationship. Background: Starting from a psychodynamic view, where pregnancy is regarded as a period of normal maturational crisis which under unfavourable conditions may lead to psychopathological conditions, it may be important to outline which factors adversely affect the resolution of this phase. Methods:The study is a cross-sectional survey; a series of questionnaires were administered to a sample of Italian, nulliparous and low risk pregnant women to evaluate depression, anxiety, parental bonding and variables concerning the wellbeing of the woman including the quality of relationships with important people in her life. Results: Logistic regression analysis confirmed the role of several known risk factors of antenatal depression (i.e. concurrent anxiety, the presence of stressful events) and yielded two new findings: a relationship characterised by affectionless-control with the mother in childhood and having experienced a mother who had miscarried. Conclusion: The results underline the relevance of the early mother-daughter relationship in the pregnant woman's intrapsychic reorganization of motherhood, emphasising the importance of preventive psychological management as part of prenatal care.