What patterns of postpartum psychological distress are associated with maternal concerns about their children's emotional and behavioural problems at the age of three years?

Figures & data

Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of mothers at eight weeks postpartum and their children.

	n^a	Mean (SD)	Frequency (%)
Mother's age (years)	647	30.34 (4.43)
Father's age (years)	645	32.22 (5.02)
Gender of infant (male)	647		313 (48.4)
Number of siblings (% one sibling)	647		350 (54.1)
Marital status (% partnered)	647		629 (97.2)
Mother's education (% with high school or greater)	646		625 (96.7)
Father's education (% with high school or greater)	643		620 (96.4)
Mother employed (full or part time)	647		473 (73.1)
Father employed (full or part time)	645		596 (92.4)
Household income (% < $40,000CDN)	619		88 (14.2)
Birth country (% Canada)	647		533 (82.4)

Note: ^aSample size varies due to missing values.

Figure 1. Illustrative representation of cluster profiles generated from the maternal characteristics.

Table 2. Z-scores for final cluster centres.

	PES	KSQ anxiety	KSQ relaxed	KSQ depressed	KSQ content	KSQ somatic	KSQ well-being	KSQ hostility	KSQ friendly	EPDS	RT
Cluster 1	0.345	–0.561	0.247	–0.548	0.188	–0.425	0.379	–0.518	0.131	–0.536	–0.352
Cluster 2	–0.468	0.769	–0.163	0.653	0.003	0.554	–0.480	0.726	0.007	0.681	0.464
Cluster 3	–1.634	1.581	–3.301	2.166	–4.380	1.141	–1.671	1.629	–3.79	2.216	1.034

Note: PES,  Parental Expectations Survey; KSQ, Kellner Symptom Questionnaire; EPDS, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale; and RT, Relationship Tension.

Table 3. PEDS path frequencies by number of clusters.

	Number of clusters
	1	2	3	Total
PEDS path	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)
Path A	35 (9)	30 (13)	6 (32)	71 (11)
Path B	125 (32)	69 (29)	5 (26.32)	199 (31)
Path C	85 (22)	62 (26)	2 (11)	149 (23)
Path E	144 (37)	78 (33)	6 (32)	228 (35)
Total	389	239	19	647

Note: In this study, none of the children were coded in PEDS Path D.

Table 4. Associations between PEDS paths and clusters.

	# Expected	# Actual	Pearson's χ^2	p-Value
Path A × Cluster 1	42.7	35	3.90	0.048
Path A × Cluster 2	26.2	30	0.97	0.325
Path A × Cluster 3	2.1	6	8.51	0.004
Path C × Cluster 1	89	85	1.55	0.461
Path C × Cluster 2	54.7	62	2.13	0.344
Path C × Cluster 3	4.3	2	2.63	0.269