A study covered by Reuters points out one of the biggest risk factors for psychological problems among mothers: lack of emotional support. Certainly this could be filed in the “obvious” category, but at least there are some new numbers to back it up.
Women who reported feeling a lack of emotional support (they had no one to rely on for day-to-day emotional help with parenting) represented nearly 14 percent of the total sample and were 3.4 times more likely to report being in poor mental health, the researchers found.
It is easy to chop apart the methodology in the study, but in sticking with the main point, emotional support is one of the most basic human needs. Being supported and understood is absolutely a protective and healing factor for most people. Furthermore, people in general are at greater risk for psychological problems without adequate support, not just mothers, but the extra toll for mothers really comes when their children also suffer from it.
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4 Comments to
“Moms & Mental Health”
Several journal articles suggest moms who are depressed for various reasons (little to no emotional support, finances, etc..)potentially leads to poor birth outcomes such as low birth weight infants, pre-mature births, among other conditions. Maternal depression effects surely, Mom herself, her infants, and her family. The rate of pre-mature infants continues to rise yet concrete evidence to support the exact nature of pre-mature delivery is an unknown.
There’s nothing wrong with being independent, but there are time when we need someone and we can’t blame ourselves if we wanted to be strong in carrying all the responsibility.
With strong family relationships, I believe that this wouldn’t be a big problem.
It’s certainly hard to undergo a sad situation if we don’t have anyone to support us. We can’t be sure that the people who support us will be there all the time.
I agree with this completely, thanks for the post.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 31 May 2007
