ArticlePublisher preview available

Intimacy and Postpartum Depression: A Moderated Mediation Model

Journal of Child and Family Studies

October 2022
32(3):1-12

DOI:10.1007/s10826-022-02461-4

Authors:

Ionela Bogdan

Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava

Maria Nicoleta Turliuc

Alexandru Ioan Cuza University

Women’s postpartum depression is the most common mental illness following childbirth. In the present study, we aimed to examine the association between intimacy and postnatal depression and to explain it through the mediating role of maternal self-efficacy. We also aimed to explore if the partner’s job stress moderates the proposed mediation model. Between November 1 and December 31, 2019, a sample of 85 couples of first-time parents, having a child aged 1–12 months, participated in this non-experimental cross-sectional study. Mothers completed measures of intimacy, maternal self-efficacy, postpartum depression, and religiosity, while fathers completed scales of job stress and religiosity. The results indicated that: (1) intimacy is negatively associated with postpartum depression, the regression analyses confirming that greater intimacy predicts lower levels of postpartum depression; (2) maternal self-efficacy partially mediates the relationship between intimacy and postpartum depression, (3) partner’s job stress moderates the link between intimacy and maternal self-efficacy, and (4) maternal religiosity and partner’s religiosity represent significative covariates of the moderated mediation model. The findings suggest that therapists should pay close attention to intimacy and variables that mediate and moderate its relationship with postnatal depression, maternal self-efficacy and partner’s job stress, to improve first-time mothers’ mental health.

Simple mediation model. ¹Indirect effect; ²Total effect; *p < 0.05

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Statistical diagram and path analysis of moderated mediation model of postpartum depression in primiparous women. *p < 0.05

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Journal of Child and Family Studies (2023) 32:3338–3349

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02461-4

ORIGINAL PAPER

Intimacy and Postpartum Depression: A Moderated Mediation

Model

Ionela Bogdan1●Maria Nicoleta Turliuc 1

Accepted: 3 October 2022 / Published online: 25 October 2022

Abstract

Women’s postpartum depression is the most common mental illness following childbirth. In the present study, we aimed to

examine the association between intimacy and postnatal depression and to explain it through the mediating role of maternal

self-efﬁcacy. We also aimed to explore if the partner’s job stress moderates the proposed mediation model. Between

November 1 and December 31, 2019, a sample of 85 couples of ﬁrst-time parents, having a child aged 1–12 months,

participated in this non-experimental cross-sectional study. Mothers completed measures of intimacy, maternal self-

efﬁcacy, postpartum depression, and religiosity, while fathers completed scales of job stress and religiosity. The results

indicated that: (1) intimacy is negatively associated with postpartum depression, the regression analyses conﬁrming that

greater intimacy predicts lower levels of postpartum depression; (2) maternal self-efﬁcacy partially mediates the

relationship between intimacy and postpartum depression, (3) partner’s job stress moderates the link between intimacy and

maternal self-efﬁcacy, and (4) maternal religiosity and partner’s religiosity represent signiﬁcative covariates of the

moderated mediation model. The ﬁndings suggest that therapists should pay close attention to intimacy and variables that

mediate and moderate its relationship with postnatal depression, maternal self-efﬁcacy and partner’s job stress, to improve

ﬁrst-time mothers’mental health.

Keywords Postpartum depression ●Intimacy ●Maternal self-efﬁcacy ●Job stress ●Religiosity

Highlights

●The prevalence of women’s postpartum depression has grown in the last decades.

●The relationship between intimacy and postpartum depression is understudied.

●Maternal self-efﬁcacy mediates the relationship between intimacy and postpartum depression.

●Father’s job stress moderates the link between intimacy and maternal self-efﬁcacy.

Postpartum maternal depression is the most common

mental illness following childbirth (Beck, 2008). Its

symptoms reﬂect the physiologic dysregulation that

inﬂuences a mother’s sleep, appetite, cognitive and emo-

tional functioning, which are characteristic for major

depression, present nearly every day for 2 weeks or more

(Galea and Frokjaer, 2019; Stickel et al., 2019; Sacher

et al., 2020). It can produce not only severe consequences

for mothers, but also less functional mother-child inter-

actions and decreases in the child’s physical, cognitive,

and emotional progress (for a meta-analysis, see Slomian

et al., 2019). There is no agreement on the deﬁnition of

postpartum depression and its etiology is not clearly

established (Langan and Goodbred, 2016). However, it has

biological (Bloch et al., 2000), psychological and social

risk factors (Tokumitsu et al., 2020).

Fifty years ago, postpartum depression was reported to

characterize 11% of new mothers (Pitt, 1968), but a recent

meta-analysis, summarizing 291 studies from 56 coun-

tries, indicated that maternal postpartum depression’s

global prevalence is 17.7% (Hahn-Holbrook et al., 2018).

Postpartum depression characterizes 10% of women from

high-income countries and 19% of mothers from medium

*Maria Nicoleta Turliuc

turliuc@uaic.ro

1Department of Psychology, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of

Iaşi, Toma Cozma, no. 3, 700554 Iaşi, Romania

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