Maternal Identity and Role Balance in Pregnancy: Construction and Validation of the Maternal Role Integration Questionnaire (MRIQ-P)

BACKGROUND: Pregnancy represents a major identity transition, yet most perinatal assessments focus primarily on emotional symptoms rather than on how women integrate the maternal role into their broader identity and life context. Difficulties in maternal role integration may constitute an early vulnerability factor for psychological distress. This study aimed to develop and validate the Maternal Role Integration Questionnaire-pregnancy version (MRIQ-P), a brief instrument designed to assess maternal identity and role balance during pregnancy, and to examine its clinical relevance for perinatal mental health. METHODS: A sequential mixed-methods design was employed. Phase 1 involved focus groups with pregnant women (n = 17) and cognitive debriefing to generate and refine items. Phase 2 included expert evaluation of content validity. In Phase 3, the MRIQ-P was psychometrically validated in a sample of pregnant women (n = 256), randomly divided into exploratory (n = 83) and confirmatory (n = 173) subsamples. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted, along with reliability analyses, tests of convergent, discriminant, incremental, and measurement invariance validity. RESULTS: Analyses supported a bifactor structure comprising a general factor of maternal role integration and two specific dimensions: Maternal Identity and Balance of the Maternal Role. The final 8-item version demonstrated excellent internal consistency for the total score (α = 0.96) and subscales (α = 0.98 for Maternal Identity and α = 0.98 for Balance of the Maternal Role), as well as measurement invariance across primiparous and multiparous women. Higher maternal role integration was associated with greater self-esteem, positive affect, and life satisfaction, and with lower anxiety, depression, prenatal distress, and maternal ambivalence. Importantly, MRIQ dimensions explained additional variance in antenatal depression and dispositional guilt beyond established psychological predictors, supporting its incremental and potential clinical utility. CONCLUSIONS: The MRIQ is a brief, psychometrically robust, and clinically relevant instrument for assessing maternal role integration during pregnancy. By capturing identity- and role-related processes that are not directly addressed by symptom-based screening tools, it may contribute to early identification of vulnerability and to more comprehensive perinatal psychological assessment in healthcare settings.