Body Image During Pregnancy in the Era of Coronavirus Disease 2019: The Role of Heterogeneous Patterns of Perceived Social Support

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the profiles of pregnant women on perceived social support with regard to sociodemographic variables, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related distress issues, and body image. We compared the aforementioned relationships within the study variables between pregnant women and a control group of non-pregnant women.Method: The study sample comprised 345 women, 157 pregnant women, and 188 women in the control group. Participants filled out paper-and-pencil or online psychometric questionnaires to assess the variables analyzed in our research.Results: Latent profile analysis revealed six profiles of pregnant women based on perceived social support, which varied in terms of body image evaluation. The high-support profile differed from the profiles with the lowest scores in all support domains. Significant differences in body image between the profiles of pregnant women and the control group were noted.Conclusion: Understanding the mechanisms through which women can attain more body satisfaction during pregnancy is an important research topic that can inspire planning for more effective psychological help, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and related psychological distress.

Coping profiles, depression, and body image anxiety during the Covid-19 pandemic: Comparative analysis of females with thyroid diseases and a non-clinical sample

“…However, recent extensive epidemiological studies have shown that these catastrophic projections were highly exaggerated, and many people even reported some positive changes due to the new lifestyle imposed by the pandemic [ 49 ]. This corresponds particularly with research on the quality of life among pregnant women during the Covid-19 pandemic, whose emotional well-being was even better than before the pandemic due to the greater emotional support received at this critical time, as well as the more subjective sense of the closeness of family life [ 50 , 51 ]. Although this topic requires further study, this may explain why the Covid-19 pandemic did not have any association with body image anxiety or depression in the control group.…”

Comparing body image dissatisfaction between pregnant women and non-pregnant women: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The results were non-significant ( p = 0.17), suggesting that the use of independent samples (overall effect size = 0.22) or repeated measures samples (ES = -0.16) did not affect outcomes, however, due to there being only four with repeated measures samples these results should be interpreted with caution. Gestation was also reported in all but two papers [ 14 , 58 ]. When gestation was reported, this was done in many different ways (e.g.…”

“…However, only three studies analysed the effect of gravidity [ 31 , 55 , 64 ]; two of these studies found that women in their first pregnancy (primigravidae) have lower body dissatisfaction than multigravidae (M = 5.76 / 6.01 [ 31 ] and M = 139.2 / 143.8 [ 55 ] for primigravidae and multigravidae, respectively), whereas the third study [ 64 ] found primigravidae had slightly higher body dissatisfaction (M = 9.61) than multigravidae (M = 7.01). Due to the other fourteen studies not reporting separate means for gravidity (N=8; [ 12 , 14 , 56 – 58 , 62 , 65 – 67 ]), not reporting gravidity (N=3; [ 36 , 59 , 63 ]), or only testing primigravidae (N=3; [ 60 , 61 , 70 ]) no statistical analysis was possible within this meta analysis.…”

“…Due to the other fourteen studies not reporting separate means for gravidity (N=8; [ 12 , 14 , 56 – 58 , 62 , 65 – 67 ]), not reporting gravidity (N=3; [ 36 , 59 , 63 ]), or only testing primigravidae (N=3; [ 60 , 61 , 70 ]) no statistical analysis was possible within this meta analysis.…”

“…The main statistical analysis on a group level showed that women’s body image dissatisfaction was not statistically different during pregnancy compared with when not pregnant. However results from Tau’s test of heterogeneity and inspection of individual studies indicated large variation in the results, with some studies demonstrating that on a group level body image dissatisfaction is lower when pregnant [ 14 , 31 , 55 , 57 , 60 , 64 , 66 , 67 ], others showing that body image dissatisfaction is higher when pregnant [ 36 , 59 , 61 , 63 , 70 ], and other studies finding no significant group difference [ 12 , 56 , 58 , 62 , 65 ]. This may suggest that by synthesising results from several studies, the outcome has regressed to the middle ground.…”