Work

Evaluating a hierarchical structural model of psychopathology symptoms across pregnancy and the postpartum period.

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: = 25.3 weeks postpartum). We examined changes (or invariance) in symptom structure longitudinally. Results demonstrated a hierarchical structure of symptoms including a robust broad distress factor at the highest level, followed by replicable internalizing and externalizing factors. The best lower-order solutions included eight to nine factors at each timepoint. Across earlier to later pregnancy and postpartum, psychopathology structure showed both significant invariance and nuanced changes, indicating that perinatal symptom factors are largely robust, while the structure of select subfactors (e.g., low mood, general anxiety) differs slightly across time. Consistent pregnancy anxiety, traumatic stress, somatic problems, detachment, anger-antagonism, and inattention-hyperactivity factors emerged across timepoints. Factors relating to positive affect, low mood, general anxiety, and social anxiety were structured similarly although not identically across time. These longitudinal trends in psychopathology structure have important implications for empirically based psychopathology classification in this critical developmental phase. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Source: Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science

DOI: 10.1037/abn0001056

Authors: Cassandra M. Brandes, Hannah M. Clark, Catherine H. Demers, Elysia Poggi Davis, Benjamin L. Hankin

Institutions: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Brandeis University, University of Colorado System, University of Colorado Denver, University of Denver

Language: English

Topic: Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum

Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute