Can We Predict the Evolution of Depressive Symptoms, Adjustment, and Perceived Social Support of Pregnant Women from Their Personality Characteristics? a Technology-Supported Longitudinal Study
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Background: Research exploring the relationship between personality and important pregnancy outcomes (i.e., depressive symptoms, adjustment, and perceived social support) tends to be cross-sectional, arguably due to the difficulties of conducting longitudinal and mental health research in this population. The objective of this study is to use a web-based solution to longitudinally explore how personality traits are associated, not only with the co-occurrence of these outcomes but also with their evolution during pregnancy. Stability and change of these outcomes will also be investigated. Methods: The sample included 85 pregnant women attending several medical centers in Spain. The web-based assessment included sociodemographic and obstetric variables (ad hoc) and personality (at the second trimester only), and outcomes at both the second and the third trimester (i.e., depressive symptoms, adjustment, and perceived social support). Results: The results showed that adjustment worsened from the second to the third trimester of pregnancy. Neuroticism (N), low extraversion (E), and psychoticism (P) were cross-sectionally and longitudinally associated with outcomes. In addition, N and, to a lesser extent P, uniquely contributed to the evolution of these outcomes in the multivariate analyses, including autoregressions. Conclusion: Personality and especially N and P should be evaluated early during pregnancy mental health screening. The use of a web page appears to be a useful tool for that purpose. Technologies might also help disseminate mental health prevention programs for these women, which would be especially recommended for those with a personality profile characterized by high N and P and, to a lesser extent, low E.
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Andreu-Pejó et al.'s results showed that certain personality characteristics (e.g., high neuroticism) may be a risk factor to pregnant women's wellbeing deterioration.
“The results showed that certain personality characteristics (e.g., high neuroticism) may be a risk factor to pregnant women’s wellbeing deterioration”
From Using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for Mental Health Prevention and Treatment (2021) · cites this paper as [12]
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- Authors
- Andreu-Pejó, L., Martínez-Borba, V., Suso-Ribera, C., & Osma, J.
- Affiliations
- Nursing Department, Universitat Jaume I de Castelló, Castelló de la Plana, 12071 Valencia, Spain
- Universidad de Zaragoza (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Osma, Jorge
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2020-05-14
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 3439
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7277102
- OpenAlex
- W3024054952
- Cited by
- 8
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 0.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- dx.doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Repositori UJI (Universitat Jaume I) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Zaguan (University of Zaragoza Repository) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Universitat Jaume I (PREDOC/2018/43)
- Gobierno de Aragón (Departamento de Innovación, Investigación y Universidad) and FEDER 2014-2020 "Construyendo Europa desde Aragón" (Research group S31_20D)
- Conselleria de Sanitat (Agencia Valenciana de Salud) (SMP 45/2011)
- Fundación Universitaria Antonio Gargallo and The Obra Social Ibercaja (2013/B006 and 2014/B006)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Keywords
- pregnancy, depressive symptoms, psychological adjustment, perceived social support, personality traits, neuroticism, extraversion, psychoticism, longitudinal change, online assessment, mental health screening, mental health prevention
- MeSH terms
- Cross-Sectional Studies, Depression, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Personality, Personality Inventory, Pregnancy, Social Support, Spain
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