Assessing Neighborhood Characteristics and Their Association with Prenatal Maternal Stress, Depressive Symptoms, and Well-Being in Eight Culturally Diverse Cities: A Cross-Sectional Study

Laura Campo-Tena (), Gabriela Diana Roman, Aja Louise Murray, Bao Yen Luong-Thanh, Marguerite Marlow, Yasmeen Anwer, Awurabena Dadzie, Sarah Foley, Sandra Stuart Hernandez, Carene Lindsay, Shobhavi Randeny, Joanne A. Smith, Diana Taut and Manuel P. Eisner
Additional contact information
Laura Campo-Tena: Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 9DA, UK
Gabriela Diana Roman: Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 9DA, UK
Aja Louise Murray: Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9YL, UK
Bao Yen Luong-Thanh: Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Demography, Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Hue City 7720101, Vietnam
Marguerite Marlow: Institute for Life Course Health Research, Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town 7535, South Africa
Yasmeen Anwer: Global Health Department, Health Services Academy, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Awurabena Dadzie: Department of Psychology, University of Ghana, Accra P.O. Box LG 25, Ghana
Sarah Foley: Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 8AQ, UK
Sandra Stuart Hernandez: Child Protection Unit, University of the Philippines, Manila 1000, Philippines
Carene Lindsay: Caribbean Institute for Health Research, The University of the West Indies, Kingston 00000, Jamaica
Shobhavi Randeny: Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya 11600, Sri Lanka
Joanne A. Smith: Caribbean Institute for Health Research, The University of the West Indies, Kingston 00000, Jamaica
Diana Taut: Department of Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University, 400347 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Manuel P. Eisner: Institute of Criminology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 9DA, UK

IJERPH, 2025, vol. 22, issue 3, 1-20

Abstract: Despite growing evidence on the influence of neighborhood characteristics on maternal well-being, there is a critical gap in the availability of validated instruments for measuring these constructs across different cultural settings. Existing neighborhood-related scales often lack cross-cultural validation, limiting their applicability in low- and middle-income countries. Understanding the impact of neighborhood characteristics is crucial given its multigenerational impact. We used data from the Evidence for Better Lives dataset to assess the conceptual and measurement equivalence of the community scales of neighborhood cohesion, intergenerational closure, and neighborhood and social disorder, testing for measurement invariance across eight low- and middle-income countries. Secondly, we examined patterns of associations with prenatal maternal stress, well-being, and depressive symptoms through the use of nomological networks. We found that the conceptual and measurement equivalence of the neighborhood domains were comparable across the eight studied countries. Additionally, our results suggest that higher levels of neighborhood and social disorder and lower levels of cohesion and intergenerational closure in the community are associated with adverse maternal outcomes across the included sites. The results of this study stress the importance of exploring the community context when assessing maternal well-being and supports the need to advocate for community-based interventions that promote safer physical and social environments within maternal programs and urban planning.

Keywords: neighborhood characteristics; maternal stress; depressive symptoms; well-being; validation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/3/456/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/3/456/ (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:22:y:2025:i:3:p:456-:d:1616445

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 ().