Pregnancy-related anxiety scale (PrAS): International research and clinical contexts

Pregnancy-related anxiety is a specific anxiety characterized by fears and worries about pregnancy. This distinct anxiety is associated with various adverse neonatal (e.g., preterm birth), obstetric (e.g., prolonged and difficult labor), and maternal outcomes (e.g., mood disorders). While several scales exist that assess pregnancy-related anxiety, there is limited information on their development and psychometric properties. Moreover, general anxiety scales used to assess anxiety in pregnant women can confound assessment by the similarity of common pregnancy experiences with anxiety symptomology (e.g., poor sleep). The development of the Pregnancy-related Anxiety Scale (PrAS) addressed this gap, and since its development, the PrAS has demonstrated sound psychometric properties. To meet antenatal anxiety-screening guidelines that advocate using brief scales, the PrAS was refined to a 15-item version. To cater to UK guidelines, the 15-item PrAS-Screener was further refined to 11 items. An initial psychometric examination confirmed that the PrAS-Screener has comparable psychometric properties to the full version. The PrAS has been translated into Turkish, German, and Dagbani. Of those, significant cross-cultural differences between the original PrAS and the Dagbani version highlighted this measure’s limitations in its original form for some low- and middle-income countries. Future directions include focusing on cross-cultural differences and the applicability of the PrAS to Indigenous communities and people with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.