Paternal Antenatal Attachment Scale (PAAS)

A modified version of the Maternal Antenatal Attachment Scale (MAAS), the PAAS assesses both the quality and strength of the subjective experience of the father’s attachment to the developing baby [61, 62]. Comprising 16 items forming two subscales (Quality of Attachment and Time in Attachment), the PAAS is answered using five-point Likert scales, where higher scores indicate stronger attachment to the baby. Although only a small number of previous studies have used the PAAS, relationships have been found with related measures including relationship quality, mental health, increasing gestational age, and father identity [63, 64]. Previous research also supports the reliability and validity of the PAAS, with reports of high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.83) [62]. For this study, the final question of the scale “If the pregnancy was lost at this time (due to miscarriage or other accidental event) I expect I would feel …” was omitted, given that participants had experienced a pregnancy loss or neonatal death. Internal consistency of this 15-item version in this study was also high (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.83).