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Background The purpose of the current study was to examine the factorial dimensions underlying Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) in a large ethnically and economically diverse sample of postpartum women and to assess their relative contribution in differentiating clinical diagnoses in a subsample of depressed women. Methods We administered the BDI-II to 953 women between 4 and 20 weeks postpartum. Women who had low (1–7) and high (> 12) BDI-II total scores were administered the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I). Results Exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed three factors, Cognitive, Somatic, and Affective, that accounted for 49.09% of the overall variance of items. Logistic regression analyses showed that somatic and affective factors contributed to diagnosis of major depression, while the somatic factor alone contributed to the diagnosis of depression with comorbid anxiety. The cognitive factor differentiated women with major depression from women who were never depressed. Limitations Our definition of clinical depression included episodes of depression during the child’s lifetime, and depressive symptoms were not necessarily current at the time of the assessment, which may impact the relative contribution of BDI-II factors to clinical diagnosis. Conclusion Conceptualizing the structure of the BDI-II using these three factors could contribute to refining the measurement and scoring of depressive symptomatology and severity in postpartum women. Although somatic symptoms of depression may be difficult to differentiate from the physiological changes of normative postpartum adjustment, our results support the inclusion of somatic symptoms of depression in the calculation of a BDI-II total score.

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Although extensively discussed in theoretical articles, empirical studies of therapist attachment and perceptions of ruptures and repairs are lacking. The present study examined the relationship between therapist attachment anxiety and avoidance and their perceptions of rupture tension, effort, and repair. Twenty-two novice therapists completed a measure of adult romantic attachment and a measure to assess perceptions of ruptures and repairs following the eighth session with their first clients. Results revealed that there was a strong positive correlation between therapist attachment anxiety and effort spent focused on perceived ruptures and a moderate positive correlation between attachment anxiety and rupture tension. There was no significant relationship between attachment anxiety and perceived repairs of ruptures. Attachment avoidance was not significantly correlated with either perceptions of the ruptures or repairs. Therapists who were higher on anxiety and avoidance, more fearful therapists, reported the most ruptures. Limitations and implications of the findings are presented.

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