Screening for paternal perinatal affective symptoms: psychometric properties of the Perinatal Assessment of Paternal Affectivity (PAPA 2.0) in the Polish context

Paternal perinatal mental health has been gaining considerable attention in contemporary scientific literature. Correlational and longitudinal associations have been established between paternal depressive and anxiety symptoms, maternal mental health and child development. Yet, we still lack assessment instruments tailored to fathers’ specific affective symptom profile that could prompt early detection and intervention. The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Polish adaptation of the Perinatal Assessment of Paternal Affectivity questionnaire (PAPA version 2.0), which represents a further development of PAPA tool published in 2022. The prenatal assessment included 213 fathers in the third trimester of their partners’ pregnancy, while 72 fathers participated in the postnatal phase. Reliability, concurrent validity, factorial structure and associations between prenatal and postnatal scores were evaluated. PAPA 2.0 demonstrated high internal consistency before and after childbirth. Its total scores showed moderate-to-high positive correlations with depressive symptoms, perceived stress, global psychological distress and postnatal EPDS scores, indicating satisfactory concurrent validity. Exploratory factor analysis suggested a two-factor structure with one item - describing risky behaviors - showing poor item discrimination, which may point to the need for this item’s reformulation in future studies. Prenatal and postnatal PAPA scores were significantly associated, suggesting relative stability of paternal affective symptoms across the perinatal period. The study is limited by its convenience sample, high educational and urban bias as well as pandemic-related substantial postnatal attrition. Despite these limitations, the findings support PAPA 2.0 as a promising screening tool for identifying paternal perinatal affective symptoms in Polish fathers.