Abstract
BackgroundPregnancy can be stressful for women and families, so the life satisfaction of pregnant women may face significant challenges. This study aimed to identify the relationship among anxiety symptoms, perceived social support and life satisfaction, and to further explore whether perceived social support can play a mediating role.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted from June to September in Shenyang City, China in 2019. 290 effective questionnaires were collected. The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), the Zung’s Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), the Multi-Dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) as well as demographic variables were included in each questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression was conducted to explore the mediating role of perceived social support in the relationship between anxiety symptoms and life satisfaction. Then the mediation model was examined by the PROCESS macro for SPSS.ResultsAfter adjusting control variables, anxiety symptoms were negatively associated with life satisfaction and explained 14.7% of the variance. Higher level of perceived social support was related to higher level of life satisfaction, explaining 21.0% of the variance. Perceived social support partly mediated the relationship between anxiety symptoms and life satisfaction for pregnant women.ConclusionsPerceived social support played a mediating role between anxiety symptoms and life satisfaction among pregnant women. Strategies and measures to improve perceived social support may be expected to buffer the impact of anxiety symptoms on pregnant women’s life satisfaction.
Highlights
Pregnancy can be stressful for women and families, so the life satisfaction of pregnant women may face significant challenges
This article aims to verify the following three assumptions among pregnant women: 1) anxiety symptoms have a negative effect on Life satisfaction (LS), 2) perceived social support (PSS) has a positive effect on LS, 3) PSS mediates the association between anxiety symptoms and LS
The average age of the participants is 31.88 ± 3.83 and 56.9% (165) of them were above 30 years old. 56.2% (163) of the pregnant women received a bachelor or above educational degree
Summary
Pregnancy can be stressful for women and families, so the life satisfaction of pregnant women may face significant challenges. Research has shown that experiencing one or more psychological disorders, such as depression, anxiety or perceived stress, during pregnancy is associated with an increased overall risk for prematurity [2]. Mental disorder during pregnancy was found to be positively associated with suicidal tendency [6], and might be a predictor of depression in postnatal period [7]. Previous studies mainly focused on the psychological problems of women in postnatal period [5]. With the deepening of related research, it was found that the incidence of mental health problems in women during pregnancy may be significantly higher than that in postnatal period [7]. The psychological health of women during pregnancy is significant and should be given enough attention
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