The mediation role of psychological capital between family relationship and antenatal depressive symptoms among women with advanced maternal age: a cross sectional study

Abstract

Background Due to changes in family policy in China, pregnancy at advanced age (30 years old or above) is prevalent. Advanced maternal age is known to be related to a variety of negative health outcomes, including antenatal depression. Family relationship quality might be an important factor for antenatal depressive symptoms among Chinese women with advanced maternal age. However, the underlying mechanisms in which family relationship quality can affect antenatal depressive symptoms among this population and how positive psychological capital (PsyCap) intervenes in this impact are not clear. Objectives To describe the prevalence and demographic characteristics of antenatal depressive symptoms among Chinese pregnant women with advanced maternal age, and to explore the mediation effect of PsyCap in the associations between family relationship quality and antenatal depressive symptoms. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional survey at a tertiary hospital in China. A total of 192 women with maternal age of 30 years or older completed the questionnaires. Data on antenatal depressive symptoms, PsyCap, family relationship quality and demographic characteristics were collected. The multiple mediation models in SPSS’s PROCESS macro were used to test whether PsyCap mediated the relationship between family relationship quality and antenatal depressive symptoms. Results Approximately 28.6% of participants had antenatal depressive symptoms and 6.8% reported poor family relationship quality. Participants with higher education (p = .02) and better family relationship quality (p = .00) were less likely to have antenatal depressive symptoms. PsyCap collectively (β = 1.14, p < .05), or more specifically resilience (β = 0.61, p < .05) significantly mediated the relationship between poor family relationship quality and antenatal depressive symptoms. Discussion The relationship between family relationship quality and antenatal depressive symptoms can be mediated by PsyCap collectively or via resilience specifically. It is important to screen antenatal depressive symptoms among pregnant women with advanced age, especially those who have poor family relationship quality. Counseling and psychotherapy initiatives for resilience-enhancing training for pregnant women at advanced age may provide a promising target to break the link between poor family relationship quality and antenatal depressive symptoms.

Depression, sleep quality, and body image disturbances among pregnant women in India: a cross-sectional study

“…The association of these variables (depression, sleep quality, and body image disturbance) with various sociodemographic factors was not found to be significant in our study, indicating that these concerns are not restricted to a specific age group or population subset but rather warrant routine screening among all pregnant patients. Although the literature notes that depression [ 28 ], body image disturbances [ 25 ], and sleep problems [ 29 ] may be associated with age, we did not observe this in our study. Although advanced maternal age may be associated with higher levels of depression, it can also be hypothesized that women with earlier pregnancies are worried about the impact that childbirth can have on their lives and careers, thus leading to a nonsignificant difference in levels of depression noted between the two groups.…”

Exosomes may be the carrier of acupuncture treatment for major depressive disorder

“…Plus, with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the likelihood of suffering from MDD has increased significantly in different occupational groups ( Lokman and Bockting, 2022 ; Steen et al, 2022 ), such as COVID-19 survivors ( Mazza et al, 2022 ), healthcare workers ( Aoun et al, 2021 ; Moro et al, 2022 ), and self-quarantined people ( Nantaayi et al, 2022 ) around the world. Besides, MDD occurs not only as a primary disease alone, but also merges with other underlying diseases, including perimenopause ( Rudzinskas et al, 2021 ), puerperium ( Zeng et al, 2022 ), stroke ( Zhou et al, 2022 ), diabetes ( Bakker et al, 2022 ), Parkinson’s disease ( Xie et al, 2022 ), epilepsy ( Aimaier et al, 2022 ), hepatitis ( Gupta et al, 2020 ), gastritis ( Eustis et al, 2022 ), and brain cancer ( Nazli and Sevindik, 2022 ), as well as promotes the pathological development of the above diseases in turn. Thus, its occult pathogenesis features can easily lead to misdiagnosis ( Kostaras et al, 2017 ).…”