Heterogeneity of emotional distress in pregnancy during COVID-19 pandemic: a latent profile analysis

ABSTRACT

Background

Emotional distress, including depressive and anxiety symptoms, is a common concern among pregnant individuals and has negative impacts on maternal and offspring’s health. Previous studies indicated the heterogeneity of perinatal emotional distress. Moreover, during the pandemic of COVID-19, expectant mothers are faced with more tough challenges, which could exacerbate their emotional distress.

Objective

The aim of present study is to examine potential subgroups with distinct profiles on emotional distress and relationship resources during the pandemic.

Methods

A total of 187 pregnant people in China were recruited from April 22 to May 16 in 2020. Latent profile analysis was applied based on prenatal depressive and anxiety symptoms, COVID-19-related negative emotions, prenatal attachment, marital satisfaction and family sense of coherence.

Results

Four subgroups were identified. Group 1 and Group 2 shared with low levels of emotional distress and COVID-19-related negative emotions, among which Group 1 had plenty of relationship resources, while Group 2 had insufficient support. Group 3 had moderate levels of emotional distress but above-average prenatal attachment. Group 4 was a highly distressed subtype with severe emotional distress and poor states across all domains.

Conclusion

Our findings support that emotion distress among expecting mothers is heterogeneous, highlighting the need for tailed interventions to address the specific needs of subgroups during pregnancy.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional distress
• pregnancy
• latent profile analysis
• COVID-19 pandemic
• heterogeneity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Consent for publication

We assured that the information obtained from participants was fully anonymised. All participants consented to the inclusion of their response data in the research.

Data availability statement

The data that supports the study are openly available in OSF Storage at https://osf.io/xe3dv/?view_only=8225114e5c3146da8ac90ec0716edb51.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China 32271136 and Lanyuan Grant of Peking University 4801000057‬ to Guangyu Zhou