Educational differences in prenatal anxiety and depressive symptoms and the role of childhood circumstances

SSM: Population Health

Juho Härkönen¹  Hasse Karlsson²  Linnea Karlsson³  Sanni Kotimäki⁴  Noora M. Scheinin⁵ 

[1] Corresponding author. University of Turku, Assistentinkatu 7, 20014, Turku, Finland.;Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, 10691, Stockholm, Sweden;Department of Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute, 50014, San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy;Department of Social Sciences, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland;FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, 20014, Turku, Finland;

关键词: Anxiety;    Depression;    Pregnancy;    Education;    Childhood adversity;    Multilevel modeling;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Despite interest in unequal maternal and child health, previous research has not focused on educational differences in anxiety and depressive symptoms during pregnancy, although they threaten maternal and child wellbeing. Using the prospective FinnBrain Cohort Study data on 2763 pregnant women over the three pregnancy trimesters and Finnish register data, we estimated multilevel regressions to describe educational differences in prenatal anxiety and depressive symptoms and to analyze whether they can be explained by socioeconomic background, parental mental disorders and adverse experiences during childhood. Prenatal anxiety was measured by the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-anxiety subscale) and depressive symptoms by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). The results showed less anxiety and depressive symptoms among more educated pregnant women. In accounting for the educational differences, we found support for both the social selection and the social causation perspectives. Adverse childhood experiences partly explained the educational differences, highlighting the role of an undisturbed childhood environment in prenatal mental health disparities. Results from the regression models as well as sensitivity analyses also suggested that education is likely to buffer against prenatal distress.

【 授权许可】

Unknown