Family involvement in pregnancy and psychological health among pregnant Black women.
Melissa Hawkins, Dawn Misra, Liying Zhang and 3 others
PMID 33593514WHAT IT FOUND
More frequent family involvement was associated with lower depressive symptoms, stress and pregnancy-related anxiety, and higher well-being among pregnant Black women.
The authors suggest prenatal nurses ask simple family-involvement questions to identify women at risk.
Key findings
01Women with high family involvement reported lower depressive symptoms, lower perceived stress, lower pregnancy-related anxiety, and higher psychological well-being than women with low family involvement.
02After adjustment for age, education, gestational age, and marital status, higher total family involvement was associated with lower depressive symptoms, lower perceived stress, lower pregnancy-related anxiety, and higher psychological well-being.
03About 50% of women had a CES-D score of 16 or higher, indicating clinically significant prenatal depressive symptoms.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study used baseline cross-sectional data, so it cannot show that family involvement caused better psychological health or that increasing involvement would improve outcomes. Family involvement and psychological outcomes were self-reported, which may introduce reporting bias. The sample came from two Midwest sites, so results may not apply to pregnant Black women in other regions. The study measured frequency of involvement, not quality or whether involvement was supportive. The perceived stress measure was not specific to pregnancy. Parity data were not yet collected. The paper did not test whether asking these questions changes care or outcomes.
Declared interests
The article lists NIH extramural research support. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that increasing family involvement will improve psychological health. The study used baseline cross-sectional data and only found an association, so it did not test whether more involvement causes better mental health.