Affective Instability, Depression, and Anxiety Symptoms in a Community Sample of Pregnant and Postpartum Women: A Cross-Sectional Study

Hua Li
Additional contact information
Hua Li: College of Nursing, University of Saskatchewan, Health Sciences Building, E-Wing, Room 4248, 104 Clinic Place, Saskatoon, SK S7N 2Z4, Canada

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: Background: Although perinatal women experience an elevated level of affective instability (AI), limited research has been conducted to examine perinatal AI and its relation to depression and anxiety. The current study investigated correlations between AI and depression, between AI and anxiety during the perinatal period, and between current depression and anxiety and the latent factors of the Affective Lability Scale-18 (ALS-18). Methods: 202 Canadian perinatal women participated in this cross-sectional study. The ALS-18 was used to assess AI, while the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 measured depression, anxiety, and stress. Multiple logistic regression was performed to investigate the relationship between AI and depression and anxiety, and multiple linear regression was conducted to examine the association between current depression and anxiety and the three latent factors of ALS-18. Results: The findings revealed a significant association between AI and depression and between AI and anxiety. Current depression and anxiety were correlated with ALS-18 factors of depression/anxiety shift and depression/elation shift, while current depression was linked to ALS-18 factor of anger. Conclusions: The study findings have important implications for early detection and intervention of maternal anxiety and depression. In order to improve maternal mental health, AI should be included in routine perinatal check-ups.

Keywords: affective instability; depression; anxiety; perinatal women (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/6/3171/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/6/3171/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:6:p:3171-:d:766582

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().