Self-esteem, stress, and depressive symptoms among Jordanian pregnant women: social support as a mediating factor

Abstract

This study purposed to assess the mediating role of social support between stress, depressive symptoms, and self-esteem among Jordanian pregnant women. Across-sectional study recruited a total of 538 pregnant Jordanian women using a cluster stratified random sampling technique, during the period from September 2019 to February 2020. The study used the following measures: The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Multidimensional Social Support Scale (MSPSS). Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to test the mediating effect of social support in terms of the association between depression and self-esteem. The results were considered significant if p ≤ .05. The findings showed that 75.6% of participants had moderate-to-high stress levels. High levels of stress, depressive symptoms, and low self-esteem were highly correlated with low social support (p < .05). Depressive symptoms predict the self-esteem (F_{(2, 537)} = 158.631 p < .05). Social support significantly mediates the relationship between the depressive symptoms and self-esteem with p = .01. Thus, during the antenatal care, administration of screening tools to identify pregnant women with low social support levels and at risk of developing psychological difficulties would allow primary healthcare to promote for positive health outcomes for the mothers and the babies.

Keywords: Depression; pregnant women; self-esteem; social support; stress.