The development and initial validation of the Tokophobia Severity Scale

Abstract

Objective Severe fear of childbirth (tokophobia; TP) is an understudied and under‐recognised phenomenon that has significant implications for maternal mental health during pregnancy, labour and delivery. The few existing measures of TP are limited by lengthy formats, difficulty scoring and a narrow definition of the TP construct. Method The current study examined the psychometric properties of a newly developed self‐report scale, the Tokophobia Severity Scale (TSS), in a sample of 122 female participants. Results The final measure consisted of 13 items. The scale demonstrated a unidimensional structure and items demonstrated excellent internal consistency (α = .93) and adequate convergent validity with the Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire‐Version A. Conclusions The findings provide preliminary evidence to suggest that the TSS is a brief, valid and reliable measure that may be used in the future to identify women with TP who may benefit from psychological and supportive interventions prior to delivery.

The Childbirth Fear Questionnaire and the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire as Screening Tools for Specific Phobia, Fear of Childbirth

“…The CFQ was designed to overcome the limitations of existing measures and as a screening tool for FoB. Existing measure frequently omit important domains of FoB [56,70,75,[88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95], include non-fear related items [88,90,92,[94][95][96][97], are too brief to encompass the full FoB experience (e.g., 1-2 items only) [56,70,75,91], or include too few items per subscale to achieve stability [92,98]. We developed the CFQ to cover the full range of domains of FoB with a view to enabling the identification of specific fear domains to be targeted in treatment.…”

Screening for Perinatal Anxiety Using the Childbirth Fear Questionnaire: A New Measure of Fear of Childbirth

“…Another example, and a novel and important aspect of the CFQ, is the inclusion of subscales measuring (a) pregnant people’s fears about negative, childbirth-related changes to their appearance and sexual functioning, including Fear of loss of sexual pleasure/attractiveness, and (b) Fear of embarrassment because of events occurring during labour/delivery (e.g., fear of urinating in front of others). It is well known that becoming a parent has a significant, and oftentimes negative, impact on one’s romantic relationship, including one’s sexual relationship [ 94 , 95 ]. That this is a concern for pregnant people appears well captured by the CFQ.…”

The Childbirth Fear Questionnaire and the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire as Screening Tools for Specific Phobia, Fear of Childbirth

“…The CFQ was designed to overcome limitations of existing measures, and as a screening tool for FoB. Existing measure frequently omit important domains of FoB [57,71,76,[83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91], include non-fear related items [83,85,87,[89][90][91][92], are too brief to encompass the full FoB experience (e.g., 1-2 items only) [57,71,76,86], or include too few items per subscale to achieve stability [87,93]. We developed the CFQ to cover the full range of domains of FoB, with a view to enabling an identification of specific fear domains to be targeted in treatment.…”