Family Functioning as a Predictor of Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy

Abstract

Family support may be a protective factor against mental health issues during pregnancy. Little is known about the effect of family function on the mental health of pregnant women. This study aimed to examine the relationship between family functioning and the mental health of pregnant women. The research was conducted with 184 pregnant women. During prenatal care appointments, the participants completed five questionnaires: Family Assessment Device (FAD), State-Anxiety Inventory (SAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), Prenatal Coping Inventory (Nu-PCI), and Revised Prenatal Distress Questionnaire (NuPDQ). The participants’ mean age was 27.2 (SD = 5.2) years, with a range between 18 and 45 years. No association was found between demographic variables and anxiety/depression or coping strategies. Family dysfunction was a positive determinant of depression (β = 0.345, p < .001) and anxiety (β = 0.199, p = .007). However, family dysfunction was negatively associated with coping planning (β = −0.192, p = .009) and spiritual coping (β = −0.154, p = .037). Our findings suggest that during prenatal care visits, healthcare providers should consider the negative impact of family dysfunction on the mental health of pregnant women.

Keywords:

• Family
• function
• mental health
• pregnancy
• stress
• coping

Acknowledgements

We thank all women who participated in the study.

Ethics Approval

This study approved by Ethic Committee of Babol University of Medical Sciences (No. IR.MUBABOL.HRI.REC.1397.108).

Consent to Participate

Before completing the questionnaires, written informed consent was obtained of the participants.

Consent for Publication

Not applicable (consent statement regarding publishing an individual’s data or image).

Authors’ Contributions

ZB, SA, and MF planned the present study. MF and ZB drafted the manuscript and revised it. SA and ME performed data collection. MC contributed to the statistical analysis. MD prepared the tables, references, and formatting of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Availability of Data and Material

Datasets used in the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Babol University of Medical Sciences (Grant No. 9705215).