Associations between social capital and maternal depression: results from a follow-up study in China

BACKGROUND: This study aims to investigate the association between social capital (SC) and depressive symptoms among Chinese primiparas at different time-points from their late pregnancy to postpartum. METHODS: A total of 450 primiparas were recruited for the current study. The assessments were conducted at three different time-points: T1 – while the participants were recruited at their 30–36 weeks of pregnancy in the antenatal clinic in the maternity hospital in Zhejiang, China; T2 – at their 2nd or 3rd days in the wards after delivery; T3 – at week 6 to 8 after the delivery in the postpartum examination clinic. SC was measured by the 29-item SC scale; while depressive symptoms were measured by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. The relationships between SC and depressive symptoms were explored separately at each of the three time-points. RESULTS: The prevalence of depression among the primiparas was 25% at T1, 13.5% at T2 and 20.8% at T3, respectively. However, the score of SC and its components at three time-points followed an opposite ‘V’ direction, with the highest score at T2, following by T3 and T1. At T1, the analysis suggested that depressive symptoms among the primiparas were negatively correlated with their social trust and social network levels. At T2, only social trust was negatively associated with depression. While at T3, it is social trust and social participations that were significantly negatively associated with depression. CONCLUSIONS: SC was associated with depression at all three time-points during and after pregnancy. More attention should be given to SC in the maternal health promotion programs of community pregnancy health care management. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12884-018-1673-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.