Associations Between Social Network Characteristics and Loneliness During Pregnancy in a Sample of Predominantly African American, Largely Publicly-Insured Women

The Impact of Social Support and Pregnancy on Subjective Well-Being: A Systematic Review

“…Life satisfaction was positively associated with SS ( r = 0.576, P < 0.01; Yu et al, 2020 ). Another study found that among the forms of SS received during pregnancy, emotional support was high among the group with a “high degree of support,” which accounted for 85% of the observations.…”

“…These were grouped into the following: whether it measured the effect of pregnancy on the SWB of pregnant women, the effect of SS on the SWB of pregnant women, and whether an intervention or a qualitative approach was used. A total of 13 studies were included in the pregnancy itself (Lips, 1985 ; Drescher et al, 2003 ; Taşdemir et al, 2010 ; Ndombe et al, 2011 ; Aasheim et al, 2014 ; Chang et al, 2014 ; Malhotra et al, 2015 ; Türk et al, 2017 ; Farooq et al, 2018 ; Robinson et al, 2018 ; Ishfaq and Mushtaq, 2019 ; Branecka-Wozniak et al, 2020 ; Tesfa et al, 2020 ), 16 studies in SS (Giblin et al, 1987 ; Stevenson et al, 1999 ; Macleod and Weaver, 2003 ; Elsenbruch et al, 2007 ; Rokach, 2007 ; Emmanuel et al, 2012 ; Ngai and Ngu, 2013 ; Gebuza et al, 2014 ; Goodman et al, 2014 ; Calou et al, 2018 ; Gul et al, 2018 ; Nakamura et al, 2018 ; Pakseresht et al, 2019 ; Yu et al, 2020 ; MoghaddamHosseini et al, 2021 ), three interventions (Corno et al, 2018 ; Nazari et al, 2018 ; Hasanzadeh et al, 2020 ), and two qualitative studies (Cynthia Logsdon et al, 2005 ; Kazemi et al, 2017 ).…”

“…Defying Rokach's (Rokach, 2007 ) expectations of Rokach, there was no significant difference in loneliness score between pregnant and new mothers on any subscales. Yu et al ( 2020 ) discovered that the size of the social network of an individual had no significant impact on maternal loneliness. Social network density, on the other hand, was shown to be negatively associated with the loneliness of the mothers.…”

“…The principal finding of the present systematic review is that pregnancy by itself has a positive association with happiness (Malhotra et al, 2015 ; Türk et al, 2017 ; Ishfaq and Mushtaq, 2019 ); however, the other SWB assessments had diverse results. SS during pregnancy has a positive association with all measurements of SWB (Macleod and Weaver, 2003 ; Elsenbruch et al, 2007 ; Emmanuel et al, 2012 ; Ngai and Ngu, 2013 ; Gebuza et al, 2014 ; Gul et al, 2018 ; Nakamura et al, 2018 ; Pakseresht et al, 2019 ; Yu et al, 2020 ).…”

“…By contrast, there are various definitions of loneliness. One definition in particular defines loneliness as “a distressing feeling that accompanies the perception that one's social needs are not being met by the quantity or especially the quality of one's social relationships” (Weeks, 1994 ; Hawkley et al, 2008 ; Yu et al, 2020 ). A portion of the literature discovered that isolation and aloneness are synonymous with loneliness (Banet, 1978 ; Peplau and Perlman, 1982 ); however, according to studies, people must view themselves as lonely to experience loneliness, regardless of their physical or social surroundings (West et al, 1986 ; Liu et al, 2016 ).…”