The Relationship Among Depression, Parenting Stress, and Partner Support in Low-Income Women From Montevideo, Uruguay

Abstract

We investigated the prevalence and predictors of depression in low-income mothers (n = 99) of young children from Uruguay. We administered the Beck Depression Scale (BDI) and the Parenting Stress Index (PSI), and asked who is responsible for the main tasks of parenting and household care. We found a high prevalence of moderate-to-severe depression (BDI >19 points, 31.3%), with women with t scores > 90 on the PSI being seven times more likely to experience moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms than women with lower PSI scores (p <.01). This is the first investigation of the predictors of depression in urban Uruguayan mothers of low socioeconomic status.