CANADIAN CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARISON OF THE HIGH-RISK PREGNANCY STRESS SCALE

The purpose of this article is to present the French and English versions of the High-Risk Pregnancy Stress Scale (HRPSS) and the reliability and validity analyses. This instrument contains 16 items representing psychological and environmental stressors of the at-risk pregnancy situation with or without hospitalization. The HRPSS was developed specifically to measure the degree of stress as experienced by women with high-risk pregnancy. The results of the principal component analyses with Varimax rotation (N=105) reveal that the HRPSS has two components. The first component represents physical restriction, while the second represents concerns related to pregnancy. These two components have been identified as forming the basis of the concept of antenatal-related stress. The HRPSS demonstrates internal consistency, equivalence and stability reliability. The psychometric analyses reveal that both the French and English versions have similar qualities.