-Relationship resilience buffers the association between pregnancy stress and postpartum depressive symptoms during COVID-19

摘要: BackgroundSubstantially elevated levels of stress, depression and anxiety have been reported by individuals that were pregnant and in the early postpartum throughout the COVID- 19 pandemic (Khoury et al., 2023). As perinatal mental health can have lasting impacts on parent health and child development, identifying protective factors to mitigate negative outcomes is crucial. This study investigated whether relationship resilience buffers the association between perceived stress during pregnancy and postpartum depression, up to 15 months postpartum.MethodThis longitudinal study followed 304 participants, from Ontario, Canada, during pregnancy, 6 weeks, 6 months, and 15 months postpartum. During pregnancy, perceived stress was measured using the Perceived Stress Scale and a latent “relationship resilience” factor was estimated using measures of social support, martial conflict (reverse scored) and …