An evaluation of the influence of social support and self-esteem on physical and mental health in postpartum mothers

The influences of parity, type of delivery, income, self-esteem and perceived social support on physical and mental health were evaluated in a sample of 207 mothers in the 6th to 8th postpartum week. It was predicted that social supports and self-esteem would be important influences on effective coping with life stressors such as the birth of a child. Vaginal delivery, higher income and being a first-time mother were hypothesized to positively influence perceived social support, self-esteem, physical and mental health. It was also hypothesized that self-esteem would mediate the effect of perceived social support on physical and mental health. Mothers completed the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form---36 to evaluate physical and mental health status, the Personal Resource Questionnaire---Part 2 to evaluate perceived self-esteem, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. The internal consistencies for the instruments were acceptable. The alpha coefficients were as follows: self-esteem was .82; perceived social support was .92; mental health was .85, and physical function was .92.; A path model was proposed and tested with a series of linear regression equations. A statistically significant influence of delivery type, parity, and income level on perceived social support, self-esteem, physical and mental health status was not demonstrated in this sample of postpartum mothers. While the predicted mediating effect of self-esteem was not supported, the final model demonstrated that perceived social support and self-esteem predicted 12% of the variance in physical function and 28% of the variance in mental health at 6--8 weeks postpartum. These findings support the need for nurses to assess the adequacies of social supports in all postpartum mothers.