Department of Sociology, Bowling Green State University, United States.
Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, United States.
Soc Sci Med. 2017 Oct;190:199-206. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.08.030. Epub 2017 Aug 26.
This study investigates a potential causal effect of mothers' perceptions of the fairness of infant care on their postpartum depression. Based on the tenets of equity theory, it is hypothesized that, net of controls, mothers who see infant care as fairly apportioned between themselves and their husbands will be less depressed than others. We utilize data from a longitudinal study of a nonrandom sample of 178 heterosexual couples experiencing the birth of their first child together. The primary focus variable is the mothers' perception in the first couple of months postpartum that infant care is fair to them. Statistical analysis involved the careful chronological sequencing of response variable and controls, along with regression modeling using propensity scores. We find that a perception of fairness is associated with about a quarter of a standard deviation lower depressive symptomatology, controlling for key covariates. Depressive symptomatology is additionally elevated for mothers experiencing more pre-partum depression, and for those who more generally felt, before the birth, that they were overbenefiting in the marriage. This paper contributes to both equity theory and research on postpartum depression. In a scenario in which it is not practical or ethical to randomly assign people to fairness-in-infant-care conditions, we are able to utilize longitudinal data and a natural "experiment," along with propensity-score modeling to attempt to assess the causal impact of fairness in infant care on postpartum depression. The finding that fairness in this arena appears to reduce postpartum depression emphasizes the importance of encouraging father participation in this critical stage of parenting. Limitations of the study with respect to causal inference are also discussed.
本研究考察了母亲对婴儿护理公平性的看法对其产后抑郁的潜在因果影响。基于公平理论的原则，假设在控制其他因素的情况下，认为婴儿护理在自己和丈夫之间公平分配的母亲会比其他人抑郁程度更低。我们利用一项对 178 对异性夫妇的纵向研究的非随机样本数据，这些夫妇共同经历了他们的第一个孩子的出生。主要关注变量是母亲在产后头几个月对婴儿护理对自己公平的看法。统计分析涉及对响应变量和控制变量进行仔细的时间序列排序，以及使用倾向评分进行回归建模。我们发现，公平感与抑郁症状量表的四分之一标准差降低有关，这是在控制了关键协变量的情况下得出的。对于在产前经历更多抑郁症状的母亲，以及在产前普遍感到婚姻中自己受益过多的母亲，抑郁症状会更高。本文为公平理论和产后抑郁研究做出了贡献。在一种不实际或不道德地将人随机分配到公平婴儿护理条件的情况下，我们能够利用纵向数据和自然“实验”，以及倾向评分建模，尝试评估婴儿护理公平性对产后抑郁的因果影响。在这个领域的公平性似乎可以降低产后抑郁的发现强调了鼓励父亲参与育儿这个关键阶段的重要性。还讨论了该研究在因果推理方面的局限性。
