Paternal Adjustment and Paternal Attitudes Questionnaire: Antenatal and postnatal portuguese versions

The Paternal Adjustment and Paternal Attitudes Questionnaire (PAPA) was designed to assess paternal adjustment and paternal attitudes during the transition to parenthood. This study aimed to examine the psychometric characteristics of the Portuguese versions of the PAPA-Antenatal (PAPA-AN) and -Postnatal (PAPA-PN) versions. A nonclinical sample of 128 fathers was recruited in the obstetrics outpatient unit, and they completed both versions of the PAPA and selfreport measures of depressive and anxiety symptoms during pregnancy and the postpartum period, respectively. Good internal consistency for both PAPA-AN and PAPA-PN was found. A three-factor model was found for both versions of the instrument. Longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis revealed a good model fit. The PAPA-AN and PAPA-PN subscales revealed good internal consistency. Significant associations were found between PAPA (PAPA-AN and PAPA-PN) and depressive and anxiety symptoms, suggesting good criterion validity. Both versions also showed good clinical validity, with optimal cutoffs found. The present study suggested that the Portuguese versions of the PAPA are reliable multidimensional self-report measures of paternal adjustment and paternal attitudes that could be used to identify fathers with adjustment problems and negative attitudes during the transition to parenthood.

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by FEDER Funds through the Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade–COMPETE and by National Funds through FCT–Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia under the project PTDC/SAU/SAP/116738/2010. This research was also supported by FEDER funding from the Operational Programme Factors of Competitiveness–COMPETE and by national funding from the FCT–Foundation for Science and Technology (Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science) within the project “Health, Governance and Accountability in Embryo Research: Couples’ Decisions About the Fates of Embryos” (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-014453), and a PhD grant (SFRH/BD/75807/2011), cofunded by the POPH (Programa Operacional de Potencial Humano) Programme.