Comparison of Perceived Social Support, Marital Satisfaction and Empathy in Women with Postpartum Depression and Normal

Postpartum period has the highest risk associated with psychiatric illnesses and mainly postpartum depression for women. The present study was conducted to determine the difference between perceived social support, marital satisfaction and empathy in women with Post-Partum Depression (PPD).

It is a descriptive study of the causal-comparative type. The present Statistical population includes all Post-Partum depressed women and normal ones who visited the comprehensive health centers of Piribazar and eynak in Rasht city, from among whom 120 women (60 with PPD and 60 normal) were chosen by the convenience sampling method. To collect data, Zimet et al. (1998) scale of Perceived Social Support, ENRICH (1988) Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire, Jolliffe & Farrington (2006) scale of marital empathy and Beck Depression Inventory were used. The data was analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive indexes and Multivariable Analysis of Variance and T Test.

The results show that there is a significant difference in family support (F=8/79, p<0/01), significant other support (F=31/47, p<0/01), Marital Satisfaction (t=-3/52, p<0/01), cognitive Empathy (F=5/3, p<0/01) and affective empathy (F=11/15, p<0/05) between normal and depressed Post-Partum women, and women with PPD have a lower scores in all variables. Conclusion Based on the findings, it can be concluded that PPD affects the level of perceived social support, marital satisfaction and empathy in women.