ArticleWomen and birth : journal of the Australian College of Midwives2022
Perceived social support and prenatal wellbeing; The mediating effects of loneliness and repetitive negative thinking on anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Women and birth : journal of the Australian College of Midwives, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 114 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence of postpartum depression in the COVID-19 pandemic and associated factors: systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Pooled it
- The impact of social support on anxiety and depression under the context of COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- The medial prefrontal cortex as a proposed regulatory structure in the relationship between anxiety and perceived social support: a review.BMC psychology · 2025Pooled it
- The effect of COVID-19 lockdowns on women's perinatal mental health: a systematic review.Women and birth : journal of the Australian College of Midwives · 2023Pooled it
- The prevalence of mental ill-health in women during pregnancy and after childbirth during the Covid-19 pandemic: a systematic review and Meta-analysis.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2023Pooled it
- One Year Into the Pandemic: A Systematic Review of Perinatal Mental Health Outcomes During COVID-19.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- The Impact of Covid-19 on Women's Mental Health and Wellbeing During Pregnancy and the Perinatal Period: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review.Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financingPooled it
- Long-term effects of mHealth consultation services on postpartum depressive symptoms and the mediating role of loneliness: A follow-up study of a randomized controlled trial.Psychological medicine · 2025Trial
- Effectiveness of mHealth consultation services for preventing postpartum depressive symptoms: a randomized clinical trial.BMC medicine · 2023Trial
- Narrative Nursing and Perioperative Psychological Outcomes in Women Undergoing Cervical Cerclage: The Potential Indirect Role of Fear of Childbirth.The journal of obstetrics and gynaecology research · 2026Article
- The moderating effect of depression on social media use and online social support: differential effects on psychological well-being.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Social Isolation and Child Maltreatment Among Japanese Mothers: Focus on Loneliness, Social Support, and Social Cohesion.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Factors affecting loneliness in pregnant women: A scoping review.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Kuwaiti women's perception of social support in pregnancy: a qualitative study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Anxiety as a mediator in the relationship of perceived stress and social support with emotional eating in female university teachers.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Associations of Prenatal Social Support in Adolescent Mothers With Measures of Social-Emotional Development in Their Young Children.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- Development of a short version of the perceived social support scale: based on classical test theory and ant colony optimization.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Examining the relationship between perceived social support and prenatal distress in pregnant women.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Effects of Machiavellianism on Cyberbullying Perpetration: Serial Mediating Role of Perceived Social Support and Problematic Internet Use Among University Students.Psychology in Russia : state of the art · 2025Article
- The association between chronotype and social anxiety among Chinese university students: a moderated mediation analysis of loneliness and perceived social support.BMC public health · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
problemPrenatal depression and anxiety are linked to poor maternal and infant outcomes. We need to understand predictors of poor mental health to identify at-risk women, and targets for support.
backgroundPrevious research has demonstrated a relationship between low levels of perceived social support, and depression and anxiety in pregnant women. However, there is a lack of research into the factors that may mediate this relationship.
aimAs social distancing measures (e.g., lockdown) are likely to negatively affect women's perceived support in the prenatal period, we investigated the relationship between perceived social support and both anxiety and depression in UK-based pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, we examined two potential mediators that may contribute to psychological symptoms: repetitive negative thinking and loneliness.
methodsWe administered a battery of online measures to a sample of pregnant women (N=205) between May-June 2020, during the first peak of the pandemic in the UK, when perceived social support was likely to be low.
resultsConsistent with predictions, perceived social support was significantly negatively related to depression, anxiety, loneliness and repetitive negative thinking. Furthermore, repetitive negative thinking and loneliness mediated the relationship between perceived social support and both depression and anxiety. Moreover, perceived social support and loneliness were associated with specific types of online behaviours.
conclusionsTaken together, the findings shed light on the processes through which social support may exert its effects on depression and anxiety and highlight potential therapeutic targets for interventions which aim to prevent and treat mood disorders in perinatal cohorts.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.