Support from friends moderates the relationship between repetitive negative thinking and postnatal wellbeing during COVID-19

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic information.

		Postnatal women (N = 251)
		n (%)
Age
	18 – 24	12 (4.8)
	25 – 34	161 (64.1)
	35 – 44	78 (31.1)
Education
	None	1 (0.4)
	GCSEs or equivalent	20 (8)
	A Levels or equivalent	45 (17.9)
	UG degree	98 (39.0)
	PG degree	83 (33.1)
	Other	4 (1.6)
Relationship
	Married or cohabiting	244 (97.2)
	Single	4 (1.6)
	Non-cohabiting partner	3 (1.2)
Living arrangements
	Living alone with child/ren	7 (2.8)
	Live with partner and child/ren	241 (96.0)
	Live with partner and no children	3 (1.2)
Employment
	Full-time employment	27 (10.8)
	Part-time employment	22 (8.8)
	Self-employed	14 (5.6)
	Studying	1 (0.4)
	On maternity or sick leave	163 (64.9)
	Furlough	2 (0.8)
	Not in paid employment	22 (8.8)
Ethnicity
	White	238 (94.8)
	Mixed or multiple ethic groups	4 (1.6)
	Asian or Asian British	6 (2.4)
	Black/African/Caribbean/Black British	2 (0.8)
	Other ethnic group	1 (0.4)
Recruitment
	Social media	197 (78.5)
	Prolific	54 (21.5)
Parity (N = 133)
	Primiparous	67 (50.4)
	Multiparous	66 (49.6)
Months since childbirth Mean (SD)		6.29 (3.37)

*Due to an error, parity information was only collected from 133 participants

Table 2. Intercorrelations between the four variables of interest.

	Mean	SD	EPDS	PASS	RTQ-10	MSPSS
EPDS	12.46	5.24	1
PASS	27.86	16.62	.703**	1
RTQ-10	27.04	11.64	.514**	.663**	1
MSPSS	65.84	15.44	−.244**	−.195**	−.180**	1

Table 3. Moderating effect of MSPSS (and its subscales) on the association between RNT and postnatal depression.

	Total MSPSS			Significant Other Support			Family Support			Friends Support
Model	b	SE	p	b	SE	p	b	SE	p	b	SE	p
constant	14.083	0.583	<.001	14.074	0.587	<.001	14.044	0.591	<.001	13.956	0.587	<.001
RNT	0.221	0.024	<.001	0.22	0.024	<.001	0.224	0.024	<.001	0.227	0.024	<.001
Social Support	−0.058	0.018	0.002	−0.137	0.047	0.004	−0.119	0.046	0.011	−0.12	0.050	0.016
RNT x Social Support	−0.004	0.002	0.032	−0.006	0.004	0.119	−0.005	0.004	0.250	−0.009	0.005	0.041
Month (covariate)	−0.277	0.082	0.001	−0.268	0.082	0.001	−0.261	0.084	0.002	−0.255	0.083	0.002
F	29.945		<.001	29.142		<.001	27.482		<.001	28.207		<.001
R^2	0.328			0.322			0.309			0.314

Figure 1. Illustration of the moderating effect of the social support of friends on the association between RNT and measures of postnatal wellbeing (anxiety and depression).

Table 4. Moderating effect of MSPSS (and its subscales) on the association between RNT and postnatal anxiety.

	Total MSPSS			Significant Other Support			Family Support				Friends Support
Model	b	SE	p	b	SE	p	b	SE	p		b	SE	p
constant	40.439	4.812	<.001	40.402	4.843	<.001	41.238	4.825	<.001		39.206	4.721	<.001
RNT	0.916	0.068	<.001	0.926	0.068	<.001	0.916	0.068	<.001		0.930	0.067	<.001
Social Support	−0.096	0.051	0.062	−0.091	0.134	0.498	−0.227	0.13	0.0813		−0.336	0.136	0.014
RNT x Social Support	−0.008	0.005	0.110	−0.004	0.012	0.76	−0.007	0.012	0.549		−0.041	0.013	0.002
Age (covariate)	−3.930	1.451	0.007	−3.854	1.462	0.009	−4.123	1.458	0.005		−3.611	1.423	0.012
F	54.223		<.001	51.602		<.001	52.929		<.001		59.13		<.001
R^2	0.469			0.456			0.463				0.490

Table 5. Relationship between technology use, and key variables of interest (Spearman’s r reported, *p < .05, **p < .01).

	MSPSS	RTQ-10	EPDS	PASS
Technology Use
Texting	0.321**	−0.152*	−0.131*	−0.188**
Voice calls	0.337**	0.015	−0.115	−0.107
Video calls	0.345**	−0.160*	−0.214**	−0.279**
Social media use	0.096	−0.054	−0.017	−0.030
Wellbeing technology use	0.109	0.120	0.101	0.197**
Technology for parenting info	0.146*	0.059	0.046	0.091
General Tech use	0.035	0.024	0.069	0.044
Forum use	0.005	0.140*	0.148*	0.141*