Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Nov 6;9(11):1516.
doi: 10.3390/healthcare9111516.

Surveillance of Parenting Outcomes, Mental Health and Social Support for Primiparous Women among the Rural-to-Urban Floating Population

Jiemin Zhu  1 , Ziwen Ye  2 , Qiyu Fang  2 , Lingling Huang  2 , Xujuan Zheng  2
Affiliations

Surveillance of Parenting Outcomes, Mental Health and Social Support for Primiparous Women among the Rural-to-Urban Floating Population

Jiemin Zhu et al. Healthcare (Basel). .

Abstract

China has the largest population of floating rural-to-urban women worldwide, most of whom are of childbearing age. However, few studies have been conducted to monitor the changing trends in parenting outcomes, mental health and social support for these women in the early postpartum period. In this quantitative longitudinal study, 680 primiparous women among the floating population were recruited in Shenzhen, China. Face-to-face collection of socio-demographic questionnaires was completed by researchers in maternity wards on the third postnatal day. Follow-up electronic questionnaires were dispatched to women via email or WeChat at 6 weeks and 12 weeks following childbirth, including the Self-efficacy in Infant Care Scale (SICS), Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and Postnatal Social Support Scale (PSSS), to measure maternal self-efficacy (MSE), postpartum depression (PPD) and social support, respectively. The mean scores of MSE for these floating women were 67.16 (14.35) at 6 weeks postpartum and slightly increased to 68.71 (15.00) at 12 weeks postpartum. The mean scores of EPDS remained almost stable, from 11.19 (4.89) to 11.18 (5.34) at the two time points. The prevalence of mild and severe PPD among floating women at 6 and 12 weeks after childbirth decreased from 54.4% to 40.1% and from 50.6% to 35.4%, respectively. The mean score of social support was 37.04 (10.15) at 6 weeks postpartum and slightly improved to 38.68 (10.46) at 12 weeks postpartum. Primiparous women among the rural-to-urban migrant population had an obviously negative status of parenting outcomes and mental health; and there was a lack of social support after childbirth. In future, tailored evidence-based interventions are highly needed to promote floating women's parenting outcomes, mental wellbeing and social support in the early stages of motherhood. As a higher-risk group of PPD, primiparous women among the floating population require effective and accessible mental health care after childbirth, such as early PPD screening and timely therapeutic methods.

Keywords: floating women; mainland China; parenting; postpartum depression; postpartum women; self-efficacy; social support.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of participants and data collection.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Zhao Y.J., Kang B., Liu Y.W., Li Y.C., Shi G.Q., Shen T., Jiang Y., Zhang M., Zhou M.G., Wang L.M., et al. Health insurance coverage and its impact on medical cost: Observations from the floating population in China. PLoS ONE. 2014;9:e111555. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0111555. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Davis D. The emergence of a new urban China: Insider’s perspectives. Contemp. Soc. 2013;42:860–861. doi: 10.1177/0094306113506873v. - DOI
    1. National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China Report on the Development of Chinese Floating Population in 2018. [(accessed on 7 January 2021)]. Available online: https://www.dyhzdl.cn/k/doc/c504711cbc23482fb4daa58da0116c175e0e1e73.html.
    1. Luo Y., Li M.L. Research progress on the current situation of reproductive health knowledge-attitude-practice and its influencing factors of female floating population. Chin. J. Mod. Nurs. 2016;22:2499–2502.
    1. Zong Z.H., Huang J.Y., Sun X.M., Mao J.S., Shu X.Y., Hearst N. Prenatal care among rural to urban migrant women in China. BMC Pregnancy Childb. 2018;18:301. doi: 10.1186/s12884-018-1934-7. - DOI - PMC - PubMed