Maternal Attitude to Pregnancy Instrument (MAPI)

Abstract

The Maternal Attitude to Pregnancy Instrument (MAPI), developed by Blau, Welkowitz, and Cohen in 1964, is a 48-item self-rating attitude test designed primarily to predict potential psychogenic obstetrical complications, such as premature interruptions. Its development stemmed from a retrospective psychiatric and psychological study involving mothers who had delivered premature infants. The instrument measures various facets of maternal experience, including perceived ability to carry the fetus to term, negative affective states like anxiety and depression, and specific attitudes toward practices such as breastfeeding. Responses are captured using a four-point scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Furthermore, the MAPI was adapted and translated into Spanish to facilitate its use among lower socio-economic Spanish-speaking clinic populations.

Keywords

Maternal Attitude to Pregnancy Instrument, Pregnancy Attitudes, Parental Attitudes, Test Development, Psychogenic Complications, Internal Consistency, Factor Structure, Measurement, Test Reliability, Family Relationships.

Authors

Abram Blau, Joan Welkowitz, Jacob Cohen

Purpose

The primary purpose of the MAPI is its application as a screening tool to identify expectant mothers who may be at elevated risk for psychogenic obstetrical complications. This predictive capability is rooted in the assessment of the mother’s subjective attitudes and specific concerns related to her pregnancy experience.

The scale was initially established following research into the psychological profiles of mothers who experienced premature delivery, aiming to capture underlying psychological distress or ambivalence that might contribute to adverse pregnancy outcomes.

Construct

The MAPI is designed to measure Maternal Attitudes and specific Pregnancy Attitudes. These constructs encompass the complex emotional and cognitive framework through which a woman experiences and responds to her pregnancy.

Specific dimensions assessed within this construct include the mother’s confidence in her physiological capacity to carry the fetus to term, the presence and intensity of negative emotional states (such as anxiety and depression), and psychosocial acceptance of the maternal role, often including attitudes toward infant feeding methods like breastfeeding.

Validity

Evidence for the validity of the MAPI is primarily derived from its factor structure. The original research conducted factor analysis on both the English (American) and Spanish versions of the instrument.

This analysis consistently revealed the presence of four salient and interpretable factors across both linguistic adaptations, suggesting that the instrument measures distinct underlying dimensions of maternal attitude relevant to the prediction of pregnancy outcomes.

Reliability

The internal consistency reliability of the MAPI, measured using the Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient, showed significant variability depending on the population sample studied.

For a sample of 145 middle-class postpartum women, the reliability coefficient was found to be acceptable at 0.80. However, when administered to a population of 78 clinic women identified as being of low socio-economic status, the internal consistency dropped substantially to 0.33. This disparity suggests that the psychometric properties of the MAPI are highly sensitive to socio-economic and cultural factors, particularly regarding its reliability among diverse populations.

Factor Analysis

The initial validation study confirmed the multidimensional nature of the MAPI through factor analysis. This statistical procedure demonstrated that the 48 items clustered into four meaningful factors for both the English and Spanish versions.

While the specific names and composition of these four factors are not explicitly detailed in the summary, the consistency of the four-factor solution across different language and demographic groups (American middle-class vs. Spanish-speaking clinic patients) provides structural evidence for the instrument’s construct validity.

Instrument

Test Type: Rating Scale, specifically a self-rating attitude test.

Format: Composed of 48 items rated on a 4-point Likert-type scale where 4 = Strongly Agree, 3 = Agree, 2 = Disagree, and 1 = Strongly Disagree.

Language Available: English; Spanish.

Population Group: Human; Female.

Age Group: Adulthood (18 years and older).

Population Details: Utilized with both Clinical and Non-Clinical women samples.

Test Methodology: Originally administered using a paper-and-pencil format.

Keywords

Mothers, Parental Attitudes, Pregnancy, Test Construction, Test Reliability, Family Relationships and Parenting, Self-Rating, Psychological Assessment.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Information not available.

Affiliation Email addresses: Information not available.

Correspondence Address: Information not available. Contact the publisher or institution associated with the original publication year (1964) for current correspondence.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Maternal Attitude to Pregnancy Instrument (MAPI) was first published in 1964. It is not listed as a commercial instrument and reportedly does not require a fee for use, though contemporary permissions should be sought from the original authors or copyright holders (Blau, Welkowitz, & Cohen).

The full set of 48 test items are generally not publicly available, and researchers interested in utilizing the MAPI must contact the original authors or the journal publisher for permission and item access.

Reference’s

• Blau, A., Welkowitz, J., & Cohen, J. (1964). Maternal attitude to pregnancy instrument. Archives of General Psychiatry, 10(4), 324–331. The original source can be accessed via the following DOI: 10.1001/archpsyc.1964.01720220002002.

Items of the Maternal Attitude to Pregnancy Instrument (MAPI)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The specific items of the Maternal Attitude to Pregnancy Instrument (MAPI) are not provided in the source documentation. Researchers must contact the original authors or the journal publisher to obtain the proprietary 48 items used in the scale.