MARITAL HAPPINESS AND CO-PARENTING QUALITY AS PREDICTORS OF POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION
Open Access
- Author:
- Gonzalez, Marina Laura
- Area of Honors:
- Human Development and Family Studies
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Dr. Douglas Michael Teti, Ph D, Thesis Supervisor
Lesley Anne Ross, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Postpartum Depression
Marital Satisfaction
Co-parenting Quality - Abstract:
- Postpartum depression can be a debilitating mental health disorder that significantly impacts the health of a family unit. Mothers who experience postpartum depression struggle to enjoy the first months of their child’s life. Unfortunately, this disorder is often not recognized by healthcare professionals, leaving women undiagnosed and without treatment. The purpose of this study is to examine two aspects of marriage that could predict the progression of postpartum depression during the first 9 months postpartum. It was hypothesized that marital satisfaction, positive co-parenting ratings, and negative co-parenting ratings at 1 month postpartum would significantly predict changes in postpartum depressive symptoms from 1-to-3, 1-to-6, and 1-to-9 months, with maternal co-parenting ratings being the strongest predictor. Pearson correlations and linear regressions were conducted to examine these hypotheses. The results demonstrate that marital satisfaction at 1 month and positive and negative co-parenting ratings at 1 month were correlated with maternal depressive symptoms at 1, 3, 6, and 9 months. In addition, both marital happiness and maternal co-parenting ratings at 1 month were predictive of decreases in maternal postpartum depressive symptoms, with marital satisfaction being the strongest predictor across all 9 months. This indicates that aspects of a marriage, especially a mother’s contentment in her marriage, can have serious consequences on mental health and should be evaluated by healthcare professionals to identify mothers at risk.