Year: 1986
Type: dissertation
Abstract: A review of the postpartum depression literature indicated the need for prospective research evaluating the role of demographics, psychosocial stressors, psychological vulnerability, and early postpartum symptomatology in the development of clinical depression. A sample of 98 primiparous women completed measures of mood, marital adjustment, life events, attributional style and expectations for infant behaviour during the third trimester. At ten days postpartum they rated symptom levels since delivery, and described their labour and delivery experiences. Between six and eight weeks postpartum, the subjects completed a second set of questionnaires identical to the first with the exception that the infant expectations questionnaire was replaced with a measure of infant behaviour. At this time subjects were also interviewed for depressive symptomatology occurring since delivery. Twenty-one percent of the sample reported a discrete episode of depression which fulfilled the DSM-I11 criteria for an affective disorder. Depression was related to: (i) poor marital adjustment and depressed mood during the third trimester, (ii) early postpartum symptoms of anxiety and agitation, and (iii) the tendency to attribute negative outcomes to internal causes. Life stress and expectations also predicted symptom levels but did not discriminate diagnostic groups. The results were interpreted to support the view that postpartum depression signals an adjustment crisis. Findings indicated that future research should examine the interaction of infant chziracteristics with women's expectations of competence in the
Source: Summit (Simon Fraser University)
Author: Valerie E. Whiffen
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W61450886