Jackson Fleda Mask, James Sherman A, Owens Tracy Curry, Bryan Alpha F
Department of Psychology, Spelman College, 350 Spelman Lane, Atlanta, GA, 30314, USA.
Save 100 Babies, Atlanta, GA, 30311, USA.
J Urban Health. 2017 Apr;94(2):259-265. doi: 10.1007/s11524-017-0136-3.
The widely publicized violent encounters between police and African American youth have unknown consequences for the emotional and mental health of pregnant African American women. Since studies document the hypervigilance black mothers exert to protect children from violence and racism and findings also reveal the association between racial and gendered stress (which includes parenting stressors) and depressive symptoms during pregnancy, an examination of the effects of stress from anticipated negative experiences between black youth and police on maternal mental health is warranted. Between July and August 2014, 100 mostly low income pregnant African American women who lived in metropolitan Atlanta and were in their first and second trimesters completed the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale, selected items from the Jackson, Hogue, Phillips contextualized stress measure, and a demographic form. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses were conducted in response to questions that asked: (1) is the anticipation of negative encounters between black youth and police associated with antenatal depressive symptoms and (2) how does the presence of prior children, male or female, contribute to the association? For question 1, the results showed that anticipated negative African American youth-police experiences were significantly associated with antenatal depressive symptoms χ (2, N = 87) = 12.62, p = .002. For question 2, the presence of a preschool-aged male child in the home was significantly associated with antenatal depression (p = .009, odds ratio = 13.23). The observed associations between antenatal depressive symptoms and anticipated negative police-youth encounters have implications for clinical- and community-based interventions responding to the unique psychosocial risks for pregnant African American women.
警方与非裔美国青年之间广泛报道的暴力冲突对怀孕的非裔美国女性的情绪和心理健康产生了未知的影响。由于研究记录了黑人母亲为保护孩子免受暴力和种族主义伤害而表现出的过度警惕,并且研究结果还揭示了种族和性别压力(包括育儿压力源)与孕期抑郁症状之间的关联,因此有必要研究黑人青年与警方之间预期的负面经历所产生的压力对孕产妇心理健康的影响。2014年7月至8月期间,100名大多为低收入的怀孕非裔美国女性完成了爱丁堡产后抑郁量表、从杰克逊、霍格、菲利普斯情境化压力测量中选取的项目以及一份人口统计学表格,这些女性居住在亚特兰大大都市地区,处于孕早期和孕中期。针对以下问题进行了双变量和逻辑回归分析:(1)对黑人青年与警方之间负面遭遇的预期是否与产前抑郁症状相关,以及(2)家中已有孩子(无论男女)如何影响这种关联?对于问题1,结果显示,预期的非裔美国青年与警方之间的负面经历与产前抑郁症状显著相关,χ (2,N = 87) = 12.62,p = .002。对于问题2,家中有学龄前男孩与产前抑郁显著相关(p = .009,比值比 = 13.23)。产前抑郁症状与预期的警方与青年之间负面遭遇之间的观察到的关联,对于应对怀孕非裔美国女性独特的心理社会风险的临床和社区干预具有启示意义。