Childbirth expectations questionnaire – a psychometric study with a sample from brazil

IntroductionThe Childbirth Expectations Questionnaire (CEQ; Gupton, A., Beaton, J., Sloan, J. & Bramadat, I.; 1991) evaluates the women childbirth expectation’s with 34 items organized in four dimensions: Pain and coping; Significant others; Nursing support and Interventions.ObjectivesTo analyze the psychometric properties (construct validity using Confirmatory Factor Analysis, discriminant validity and reliability) of the Brazilian preliminary version of CEQ.Methods350 women (Mean age: 30.01±5.452) in the second trimester of pregnancy (Mean weeks of gestation=25.17±6.55), with uncomplicated pregnancies, completed the CEQ. To analyze discriminant validity, thirty of these women participated in a workshop (12 hours, integrated in the GentleBirth, a specific perinatal education intervention program) and fill in the CEQ again after approximately 8 weeks.ResultsAfter deleting seven items (1-3-20-24-33-34-35) and some errors were correlated the four-dimensional second-order model of CEQ presented good fit (χ2=2.496; RMSEA=.071; CFI=.845, TLI=.828). The CEQ Cronbach’s alpha for the total was α=.90; all factors presented good reliability: Pain coping (α=.87); Significant others (α=.66), Nursing support (α=.84), and Interventions (α=.76). The CEQ mean scores (total, Pain coping and Nursing support) were significantly higher after the workshop, indicating more positive expectations for childbirth (p