Social Support, Infant Temperament, and Parenting Self-Efficacy: A Mediational Model of Postpartum Depression

Abstract

A model of maternal postpartum depression was tested in which difficult infant temperament was construed as a stressor and supportive interpersonal relationships were construed as a protective resource. It was hypothesized that both infant temperamental difficulty and level of social support would affect maternal depression through the cognitive mediation of perceived self-efficacy in the parenting role. Participants were 55 married women who were assessed during pregnancy and again 3 months postpartum. Infant temperament was assessed through observation, maternal crying records, and the Revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire. Results of a path analysis indicated that infant temperamental difficulty was strongly related to the mothers' level of postpartum depression, both directly and through the mediation of parenting self-efficacy. Consistent with predictions, social support appeared to exert its protective function against depression primarily through the mediation of self-efficacy. Both practical implications for identifying women at risk for postpartum depression and theoretical implications for understanding the mechanisms through which stressful events and social support affect adjustment are discussed.

Depressive symptoms in later life: differential impact of social support and motivational processes on depression in individuals with and without cognitive impairment

“…Thus, social support influences depressive symptoms only to the extent that it has an impact on motivational processes. The present findings are consistent with previous research (Benight and Bandura 2004;Bisconti and Bergeman 1999;Cutrona and Troutman 1986;Saltzman and Holahan 2002;Smith et al 2000) and with the assumption that social support operates through adaptive mechanisms such as self-efficacy (Berkman et al 2000) and coping (Holahan et al 1997a).…”

“…In a variety of studies, self-efficacy has been found to mediate the relationship between social support and depression (Benight and Bandura 2004;Cutrona and Troutman 1986;Saltzman and Holahan 2002). Other studies found personal resources such as self-esteem (Brown et al 1986), coping strategies (Holahan et al 1997b), and mastery (Jang et al 2002) played a role in the association between social support and depression.…”

The Functions of Postpartum Depression

“…Three correlates of PPD are consistently found by researchers: marriage problems and lack of social support, particularly the father's (Table 1), infant problems, including pregnancy and delivery problems (Table 2), and a prior history of depression or other emotional problems (Atkinson and Rickel 1984;Cutrona and Troutman 1986;Gotlib et al 1991;Graff et al 1991;Logsdon et al 1994;O'Hara et al 1983O'Hara et al , 1984Whiffen 1988;Whiffen and Gotlib, 1993). This paper will propose three related adaptive functions for PPD that are consistent with the expectations of evolutionary theorists and the first two correlates noted above.…”

“…Most studies find a strong correlation between either a previous history of emotional problems, depression, or depression during pregnancy, and PPD (Atkinson and Rickel 1984;Cutrona and Troutman 1986;Gotlib et al 1991;Graff et al 1991;Logsdon et al 1994;O'Hara et al 1983O'Hara et al , 1984Whiffen 1988;Whiffen and Gotlib 1993). Unfortunately, the defection hypothesis does not clearly illuminate this important aspect of PPD.…”

Providing Adaptive Health Updates Across the Personal Social Network

“…Although all parents 1 benefit from appropriate social support, it is more critical for parents of NNU babies-for whom a lack of social support is a predictor of distress-than for parents of full-term infants who are in good health (Singer, Davillier, Bruening, Hawkins, & Yamashita, 1996). Members of the social network act as a vital resource in helping these parents to meet the stressful demands placed upon them (Crnic, Greenberg, Ragozin, Robinson, & Basham, 1983;Cutrona & Troutman, 1986;McHaffie, 1992), but parents can find it difficult to identify who can help them and to ask for the help that they need (Logsdon & Davis, 1998). For their part, social network members want information about the baby's health state, how the parents are coping and what support the parents need, so that they can offer appropriate assistance (Moncur, Masthoff, & Reiter, 2008).…”