Sensemaking through the storm: How postpartum depression shapes personal work–family narratives.

Abstract

Many women experience psychological and emotional challenges during their transition to becoming a working mother. Postpartum depression (PPD) is one common, salient aspect of motherhood that can serve as a work-life shock event and profoundly shape women's work and nonwork lives yet has evaded discussion in the organizational sciences. Taking a grounded theory approach, we interviewed 41 women who experienced PPD as well as key informants who provided additional insights about PPD (e.g., an obstetrician, women working for organizations that support postpartum health). Our analysis highlights how being diagnosed with PPD activates a complex sensemaking process in which women process an imposing identity-a concept we introduce to the identity and work-family literatures reflecting an unexpected, undesirable identity that imposes upon existing (e.g., work) and/or provisional identities that may or may not be fully elaborated (e.g., motherhood), ultimately shifting how women think about the intersection of work and family. We also delineate how supports and antisupports (i.e., overt acts dismissive of women's PPD) shape the aforementioned processes. Combined, our research aims to advance the discussion of PPD within organizational scholarship, rendering significant implications for both theory and practice.

Forced shift to teleworking: how abusive supervision promotes counterproductive work behavior when employees experience COVID-19 corporate social responsibility

“…In detail, we adopted the procedure of the proceduralised grounded theory, that is, open coding, axial coding and selective coding (Corbin and Strauss, 2008;Strauss, 1987). To ensure appropriate coding and decrease potential bias, an external coder independently reviewed the coding scheme and wherever the agreement was more than 75% we retained the codes (Bhaskar et al, 2022;Gabriel et al, 2023;Strauss and Corbin, 1994). Three stages were taken in our quantitative analysis (Bhaskar et al, 2022;Jia et al, 2023;Strauss and Corbin, 1994).…”

Postpartum depression and risk factors among working women one year after delivery in Beijing, China: a cross-sectional study

“…Despite the importance of this issue, current research has insufficiently addressed the experiences of female workers, especially in China. While some studies have explored PPD among working mothers ( 13 – 15 ), they have not considered the specific characteristics of occupations and how these might impact PPD. Given the profound implications of PPD on maternal health, child development, and workplace dynamics, this study aims to analyze the prevalence of postpartum depression among women in different occupational categories in urban Beijing within 1 year of childbirth, and to explore the relationship between occupational factors and PPD.…”