Life events and postpartum depressive symptoms among Black and Latina mothers: The role of protective factors.

Abstract

Approximately, 15% of women in the United States experience postpartum depression, but Black and Latina women continue to suffer at disproportionately higher rates. While literature has shown that the experience of life stressors is a strong predictor of postpartum depressive symptoms, less research has examined personal and contextual resources that can protect minoritized groups from poor mental health outcomes during the perinatal period. The current article investigated whether four types of protective factors (family support, doctor support, nurse support, and perceived control) moderated the hypothesized relationship between life events and postpartum depressive symptoms. Participants included 122 working-class Black and Latina women who were recruited during their third trimester of pregnancy from local community spaces in the Southern New England region of the United States. Results from path analyses revealed that family support and nurse support moderated the positive association between life events and postpartum depressive symptoms at 1-year postpartum, with more life events predicting higher levels of depressive symptoms under conditions of low support. Further, family support and perceived control were associated with fewer depressive symptoms at 1-year postpartum. This study underscores the importance of interpersonal factors, specifically support from family and nurses, in shaping mental health outcomes for Black and Latina mothers amid life stressors. Findings hold important implications for clinicians and health care practitioners that can inform perinatal interventions leveraging these resources for these minoritized groups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).