Developing a Causal Model of Psychological Empowering of Pregnant Women: The Role of Psychological Distress and Mediation of Resilience, Mindfulness and Meta- emotion

Internationally, womenchr(chr('39')39chr('39'))s health during pregnancy and childbirth is recognized as a cornerstone of population health and womenchr(chr('39')39chr('39'))s empowerment is one of the development goals in the current millennium. On the other hand, psychological distress is one of the most common psychological disorders in pregnancy that can lead to serious and lasting consequences such as undermining the psychological empowerment of mothers. Therefore, the present study was conducted to develop a causal model of psychological empowerment of pregnant women based on the role of psychological distress and mediation of resilience, mindfulness and meta-emotion.

The research method was descriptive and correlational. The statistical population of this study included pregnant women who referred to health care centers of Boroujerd City in 2020. The sample size was 392 people who were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling. Research instruments included demographic and pregnancy information questionnaire, the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS-14), the Van den Bergh Pregnancy Anxiety Scale (PRAQ), the Edinburg Depression Scale (EPDS), the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (RISC-CD), the Bauer et al Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), the Mitmansgruber meta-emotion scale (MES) and the Kameda’s Prenatal Psychological Empowerment Scale (KPES). Data was analyzed by SPSS-26 software and structural equation modeling.

The effect of psychological distress variable on psychological empowerment is significant both independently and with the presence of mediating variables of resilience and mindfulness. Psychological distress, psychological resilience and mindfulness can explain 67.9% of the psychological empowerment variance; But the mediating role of meta-emotion (t = 0.690, β = -0.006) was not confirmed in the model.

Health caregivers can help moderate the negative effects of psychological distress and psychological empowerment of this vulnerable group by considering resilience and mindfulness of pregnant women during prenatal care.