An investigation into the relationship between community engagement and maternal mental health in Calgary, Alberta using the All Our Families cohort.

Abstract

Existing literature shows that increased community engagement is associated with decreased depressive symptoms. To our knowledge, no existing studies have investigated the relationship between community engagement and adverse mental health among mothers in a Canadian context, nor has this relationship been studied over time. The current study aims to address these gaps by modelling the association between community engagement and anxiety and depression longitudinally using a cohort of prenatal and postnatal mothers living in Calgary, Alberta. We used data from the All our Families (AOF) study, a prospective cohort study of expectant and new mothers in Calgary, Alberta from 2008 to 2017 across seven timepoints. We used three-level latent growth curves to model the relationship between individual-level community engagement and maternal depression and anxiety scores, while adjusting for both individual and neighborhood-level characteristics. The study sample consisted of 2129 mothers across 174 neighborhoods in Calgary. Adjusted latent growth curve models demonstrated that community engagement was associated with lower depression (b = -0.28, 95% CI -0.33, -0.23) and anxiety (b = -0.07, 95% CI -0.12, -0.02) scores among mothers over time. Adjusted results show that community engagement has a protective effect against depression and anxiety amongst mothers. The results of this study are in line with existing evidence suggesting that social cohesion, civic participation, and community engagement are protective against adverse mental health outcomes.