The Relationship Between Household Socioeconomic Status and Mental Health inWomen During Pregnancy: A Path Analysis

Background: High and low levels of anger, tension, rage, pathological anxiety and depression are the most common psychological disorders which occur during pregnancy, and can lead to undesirable outcomes. Objectives: The present study was conducted in order to investigate the relationship between household socioeconomic status and mental health in women during pregnancy in 2014 - 2015. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted on 400 pregnant women from 24th to 32nd weeks of gestation in Tehran with random sampling. Data was collected using a demographic and obstetrics questionnaire, a household socioeconomic status (HSES) scale, the Perceived Social Support Scale and the short-form version of the Depression, Anxiety, and stress scales (DASS-21) and, then was analyzed using SPSS-22 and Lisrel-8.8 by statistical path analysis. Results: According to the path diagram, among the direct paths, social support had the greatest negative effect (B = -0.29), however household size had the greatest positive effect (B = 0.18) on maternal mental health as per the DASS; among the indirect paths, paternal education and income had the greatest negative effects (B = -0.053; B = -0.035) and maternal education the greatest positive effect (B = 0.002) on maternal mental health. Conclusions: The financial deprivations and socioeconomic inequities such as poor nutrition, poverty, poor housing and poor income is contributed significantly to the incidence of chronic diseases and mental health by way of psychosocial factors, lifestyle behaviors and physiopathological changes. Counseling interventions aimed at improving maternal mental health through alleviating socioeconomic damages and increasing family support are recommended.