Discrepancies between prenatal social support expectations and subsequent perceptions of support actually received were examined in relation to postpartum depression. Low-risk primiparous women (N = 105) were surveyed 1 month before and 1 month after delivery. Almost half of the women prenatally and one third postpartially had depression scores which would lead them to be classified as possibly depressed (CES-D scores of 16 or greater). In multiple regression, two social support discrepancy measures, prenatal depression and postpartal closeness to husband, correlated with postpartal depression and accounted for nearly 40% of its variance. The generalizability of the findings should be further explored, but the findings suggest the need for attention to prenatal expectations of postpartum support as a way to influence the incidence of postpartum depression. In addition, continued efforts to identify causes of postpartum closeness with the spouse are needed.

No abstract

Percentage agreement measures of interobserver agreement or "reliability" have traditionally been used to summarize observer agreement from studies using interval recording, time-sampling, and trial-scoring data collection procedures. Recent articles disagree on whether to continue using these percentage agreement measures, and on which ones to use, and what to do about chance agreements if their use is continued. Much of the disagreement derives from the need to be reasonably certain we do not accept as evidence of true interobserver agreement those agreement levels which are substantially probable as a result of chance observer agreement. The various percentage agreement measures are shown to be adequate to this task, but easier ways are discussed. Tables are given to permit checking to see if obtained disagreements are unlikely due to chance. Particularly important is the discovery of a simple rule that, when met, makes the tables unnecessary. If reliability checks using 50 or more observation occasions produce 10% or fewer disagreements, for behavior rates from 10% through 90%, the agreement achieved is quite improbably the result of chance agreement.

Support has been found to be related to perinatal health, resulting in the development of the Postpartum Support Questionnaire based on the four categories of support (informational, material, emotional and comparison) identified by House (1981) and Cronenwett (1985). Data from four studies (N=207) provided evidence of the psychometric properties of the instrument. Internal consistency reliability was demonstrated (alpha = .90 to .94 for total instrument). Test-retest reliability ranged from .69 to .79 for total scores and .30 to .79 for categories of support. Measures of concurrent validity with the Personal Resource Questionnaire 85 were .42 and .48 at 6 and 8 weeks postpartum. Confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL 7 supported the four categories of support, but the use of these factors separately remains to be demonstrated.

One hundred two subjects provided locus of control, coping style, psychological symptom, and related information. While locus of control and other predictors were related individually to reports of symptomatology, multiple regressions showed only direct coping strategies and lower reported perceptions of stressfulness as consistently predicting reduced symptom reporting; they generally predicted 25 to 35% of the variance in symptomatology. Direct coping, in turn, was found to be predicted strongly by the combination of increased age, perceptions of the controllability of situations, and an internal locus of control. Older subjects reported fewer attributions to chance locus of control, more direct coping, and less symptomatology, which suggests a possible developmental trend toward better adjustment in these relatively young adults.