Abstract
Objective: This study explored the relationship of depressive cognitions, socially prescribed perfectionism and self-silencing, to postnatal depression and women’s beliefs about motherhood. The study aimed to replicate, with a postnatal sample, findings in the depression literature that link certain depressive cognitions with depressive symptoms. Additionally, the study explored a proposed model in which these cognitions influenced the development of dysfunctional maternal attitudes and postnatal depressive symptoms. Background: Postnatal depression and dysfunctional maternal attitudes are situated within the interactional model of depression. The importance of beliefs about interpersonal relationships that are thought to lead to depressive symptoms is explored and explained theoretically. Methods: A cross-sectional design used correlational and SEM path analysis to examine interrelationships between variables. Participants were 77 postnatal women from 18 to 38 years of age attending their regular gynaecological appointments 4–8 weeks after childbirth. Measures used included: Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, Maternal Attitudes Questionnaire, Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale and the Silencing the Self Scale. Results: Socially prescribed perfectionism, externalised self-perception, self-silencing, the divided self and dysfunctional maternal attitudes were significantly correlated with postnatal depression (r = .354–.677) and with each other (r = .272–.574). SEM modelling (final model, χ2(7, 77) = .891, CFI = 1.000, RMSEA = .000) suggested that postnatal depression is most strongly related to externalised self-perception and socially prescribed perfectionism through the mediating effects of dysfunctional maternal attitudes and the divided self. Conclusions: Depressive cognitions were found to be related to postnatal depression in ways similar to depression in other life periods. The central finding of this study was the observation that dysfunctional maternal attitudes and the divided self-mediate the relationship between depressive cognitions and postnatal depression.