The intervening effect of the What Being the Parent of a New Baby is Like-Revised questionnaire on maternal affect

Van Beeck, Elise; Pridham, Karen F; Kuipers, Yvonne

Abstract

The 'What Being the Parent of a New Baby is Like-Revised' (WPL-R) is an instrument designed to measure adaptation to parenthood. In the process of pilot testing and validating the WPL-R in a postpartum Dutch population, we became aware of the potentially sensitive nature of the measure. Despite the ethics committee waiving the invasive nature of the measure, we conducted a survey to explore its possible effect on women's thoughts and emotions by using the Positive And Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) to measure changes associated with completion of the WPL-R. Two hundred and fifteen questionnaires were returned. Our findings indicated a change in PANAS scores, implying an intervening effect when using the WPL-R, in research. This raises the question of whether it is acceptable to use a questionnaire with postpartum women without any knowledge of the possible effect it may have, even though the ethics committee has approved the study and considers the measure to be non-invasive.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 1, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Apr 25, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-07
• Deposit Date: Apr 25, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 25, 2022
• Journal: Research Ethics
• Print ISSN: 1747-0161
• Electronic ISSN: 2047-6094
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 250-262
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/17470161221094929
• Keywords: Questionnaire research, WPL-R, PANAS, ethical considerations, adaptation to motherhood
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2866471