Psychometric Characteristics of Tokophobia Severity Scale in Pregnant Women

Tokophobia is a pathological fear of childbirth that can lead to anxiety and worry in pregnant women. The aim of present study was to investigate of the psychometric characteristics of Tokophobia Severity Scale amongst pregnant women.

Methods and Materials: 

This descriptive study, the sample has been carried out on 205 pregnant women which were selected through available sampling. In this study, data were collected using Wooten et al.  Tokophobia Severity Scale of (2020) and Gladstone et al.  Brief Measure of Worry Severity (2005). The reliability coeffcients were calculated by Cronbach alpha and Halving method and to determine the validity of the scale, confirmatory factory analysis and concurrent validity were used. For analysis the data SPSS version 22 and AMOS version 24 soft ware were used and significant level was 0.01.

Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the two factor model of Tokophobia Severity Scale fits among the pregnant women. Reliability by Cronbach's alpha method and halving was obtained as 0.87 and 0.84, respectively, which indicated good reliability and validity.

It seems that due to the acceptable reliability and validity of the tokophobia severity scale in pregnant women, it can be used as a diagnostic tool to identify the severe fear of childbirth and to start teaching the management of this fear in pregnant mothers.