Evaluation of the Perinatal Grief Intensity Scale in the Subsequent Pregnancy After Perinatal Loss

Objectives: To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Perinatal Grief Intensity Scale (PGIS) for identifying a woman's grief intensity in the immediate subsequent pregnancy after a miscarriage, stillbirth, or neonatal death. Design/Setting/Participants: A web-based approach was used to collect data from 227 pregnant women after each woman had experienced a perinatal loss in her previous pregnancy. Methods: Participants completed a demographic information form and the 14-item PGIS. Results: Cronbach's alphas for the PGIS total scale and subscales were high: 0.75 (PGIS total), 0.80 (Reality), 0.82 (Confront Others), and 0.80 (Congruence), which indicated good internal consistency reliability. Validity was supported by factor analysis of the PGIS, which accounted for 66.94% of the total variance. Mothers in the neonatal death group experienced more intense grief, as measured by the PGIS, when compared with mothers in the miscarriage or stillbirth groups. Conclusions: Data from this study provided initial support for the reliability and validity of the PGIS in women in their immediate subsequent pregnancies after perinatal loss as well as the concepts of the grief intensity theoretical framework.