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The aim of the present study was to validate the Spanish Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ) against external criteria of bonding disorder, as well as to establish its test-retest reliability. One hundred fifty-six postpartum women consecutively recruited from a perinatal mental health outpatient unit completed the PBQ at 4-6 weeks postpartum. Four weeks later, all mothers completed again the PBQ and were interviewed using the Birmingham Interview for Maternal Mental Health to establish the presence of a bonding disorder. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed an area under the curve (AUC) value for the PBQ total score of 0.93, 95% CI [0.88, 0.98], with the optimal cut-off of 13 for detecting bonding disorders (sensitivity: 92%, specificity: 87%). Optimal cut-off scores for each scale were also obtained. The test-retest reliability coefficients were moderate to good. Our data confirm the validity of PBQ for detecting bonding disorders in Spanish population.

This study aims to examine the prevalence and characteristics of physical, emotional and sexual childhood abuse. It also examines whether other non-abuse types of childhood adversities related to maladaptive family functioning and separations during childhood can be used as markers for the presence of childhood abuse. Participants (N = 237) were women at 2-3 days after delivery that completed the Spanish-validated version of the Early Trauma Inventory Self Report (ETI-SR; Bremner, Bolus, & Mayer, 2007; Plaza et al., 2011), designed to assess the presence of childhood adversities. Results show that 29% of the women had experienced some type of childhood abuse, and 10% more than one type. Logistic regression analyses indicate that childhood parental death is a risk marker for childhood emotional abuse (OR: 3.77; 95% CI: 1.327-10.755; p <.013), childhood parental substance abuse is a risk marker for childhood sexual (OR: 3.72; 95% CI: 1.480-9.303; p < .005) and physical abuse (OR: 2.610; 95% CI: 1.000-6.812; p < .05) and that childhood family mental illness is a risk marker for childhood emotional (OR: 2.95; 95% CI: 1.175-7.441; p < .021) and sexual abuse (OR: 2.55; 95% CI: 1.168-5.580; p < .019). The high prevalence of childhood abuse indicates a need for assessment during the perinatal period. Screening for childhood family mental illness, parental substance abuse, and parental death - all identified risk factors for reporting childhood abuse - can help to identify women that should be assessed specifically regarding abuse.