Social support and second trimester depression.

BACKGROUND

Depression is the most prevalent psychiatric disease during and after pregnancy (Aktas and Yesilcicek, 2015). Social supportive system (SSS) serves to protect against the development of depressive symptoms (Moshki and Cheravi, 2016). The mitigating effect of SSS on depression among expectant Chinese women is unclear.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the SSS for pregnant women in Shanghai, China and identify any correlation between social support components and perinatal depression.

METHODS

This is a quantitative study using a cross sectional self-reporting survey. Two thousand pregnant women were recruited during their second trimester routine pregnancy check-up. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the socio-demographic and perinatal characteristics, level of social support and depression among the study group. The correlation analysis was conducted between groups of different socio-economic and perinatal factors and SSS, as well as between different SSS components and perinatal depression.

RESULTS

Components of social support most influencing perinatal depression were "Support from partner", "The number of close friends accessible of getting support" and "Support from colleagues" [r = -0.226, 0.206, -0.200, respectively]. Among the different components of the SSS, the items ranking high were: "Support from partner", "The living conditions in the last year" and "Support from parents". Meanwhile, "Support from neighborhood", "Participation in group activities" and "The number of close friends accessible of getting support" ranked low.

CONCLUSION

Support from the family may be a protective factor against perinatal depression among Chinese pregnant women. The study of social support during pregnancy could help us preferably understand and effectively use social resources to guide and support women in pregnancy. Context-tailored support enhancement should be based on the availability of social networks.