Family socioeconomic status, social support, and postpartum depression among adolescent mothers in Wakiso District

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the relationship between family socioeconomic status, social support, and postpartum depression among adolescent mothers. A purposive sampling strategy was used in the selection of 171 adolescent mothers from Wakiso district Nansana division, Nabweru health center 3 and data was collected using the Asset register, the multi-dimensional scale of perceived social support and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. A correlational research design was employed and Chi-square was used to examine the first three study hypotheses and then the PROCESS macro analysis was used to test the fourth hypothesis. The results of this study indicated while social support was significantly associated to postpartum depression (X2 (1, n=171) = 8.747, p<0.05), there was no significant association between family socioeconomic status and social support (X2(1, n=171) =4. 771.P>0.05), although there was a significant association between family socioeconomic status and postpartum depression (X2(1, n=171) = 14.005, P < 0.005). when it came to the fourth hypothesis, the interactive effect of family socioeconomic status, social support and postpartum depression were significant 0.007. In conclusion, this indicated that demonstrating participants from lower socioeconomic strata (lowest quintile) are more likely to experience postpartum depression compared to those from higher strata (highest quintile). Sensitization on the benefits of social support from all sources and in all forms may buffer the negative effects of postpartum depression on the adolescent mothers.