L’attachement anténatal renvoie au lien d’affection qui se développe entre une femme et son fœtus. À l’heure actuelle, peu d’outils permettent la mesure de ce concept et un seul a été étudié en français (Prenatal Attachment Inventory). Ce travail se propose d’étudier les propriétés psychométriques de la version française d’un second outil : la Maternal Antenatal Attachment Scale (Condon, 1993). Cet auto-questionnaire, initialement composé de 19 items, a été étudié auprès de 117 femmes primipares (27,5±4,27ans) en cours de troisième trimestre de grossesse. Dans cette étude, la MAAS est apparue comme un outil aux propriétés psychométriques moyennes. La structure factorielle originale n’est pas confirmée ; une solution non satisfaisante à quatre facteurs se dégage. La consistance interne, bien que correcte pour le score total, s’avère insuffisante pour les facteurs dégagés. Les auteurs, dans l’attente d’investigations complémentaires, recommandent l’utilisation de l’outil uniquement dans son score global.

Prenatal attachment (PA) is defined as the relationship that develops between a woman and her foetus. Three measurements exist for evaluating PA: the Maternal Foetal Attachment Scale (MFAS), the Maternal Antenatal Attachment Scale (MAAS) and the Prenatal Attachment Inventory (PAI). Of these three, only the PAI has been used in French.

The overall objective of the current study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of this second measure of PA: the MAAS. This scale was developed in 1993 by Condon. The MAAS is a 19-item self-report questionnaire which allows for calculating a total attachment score and two subscale scores; one score estimating the quality of the affective attachment experience and the other that estimates the intensity of concern about the foetus. For each item, the future mother provided an appreciation on a 5-point Likert scale (1=absence of feelings for the foetus; 5=very strong feelings for the foetus).

The sample was composed of 117 primiparous French females (27.5±4.27years) in the third trimester of pregnancy (32.84±3.77weeks of amenorrhea). The study was carried out over a period of 5months (January–May 2012). Each woman was asked to provide demographic data, a French version of the MAAS, a validated French version of the PAI, and a scale evaluating depressive symptoms (Edinburgh PostNatal Depression Scale, EPDS).

The MAAS demonstrated moderately good psychometric properties. Condon's two-factor structure of MAAS was not supported in our sample. Four factors were identified with exploratory factor analysis. Internal consistency was satisfactory for the global scale and for the factor 1 but not sufficiently adequate for the other factors. Concurrent validity was indicated by moderate correlations between the global MAAS scores with the total PAI score. A weak but significant inverse correlation was found between the MAAS and the EPDS suggesting good divergent validity.

The authors suggest that additional research be conducted on the measurement before confirming the validity of the French version.