Psychometric properties of the online version of the General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7): a longitudinal study in pregnant and postpartum Spanish women

Abstract: Background: The use of online questionnaires to assess common mental disorders such as perinatal anxiety has spread due to the proliferation of Internet-based psychological interventions and research. This study analyses the validity and reliability of the online version of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) in a sample of pregnant and postpartum Spanish women. Method: A total of 3082 pregnant (n = 1260) and postpartum (n = 1822) women were recruited via the Internet and underwent three follow-up evaluations during a six-month period. Results: A one-factor solution was assigned by Exploratory Factor Analysis and confirmed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis for both pregnant (CFI = 0.998; RMSEA = 0.035) and postpartum (CFI = 0.998; RMSEA = 0.038) women. The one-factor model showed strict invariance across groups. Validity was confirmed by assessing correlations between GAD-7, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and the 10-item Posttraumatic Stress Disorder checklist at three time points. The reliability coefficient was .92 for the two groups. Conclusions: This study shows that the Spanish online GAD-7 version has good psychometric properties and can be used to assess anxiety symptoms during the perinatal period.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gómez-Gómez,Irene, Domínguez-Salas,Sara, Rodríguez-Muñoz,María F, Rodríguez-Domínguez,Carmen, Gómez-Baya,Diego, Motrico,Emma
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos del Principado de Asturias 2024
Online Access:https://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1886-144X2024000300003
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