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Exploration of the cultural beliefs, values and practices of African American women regarding postpartum depression: A mini-focused ethnography
Voiceover
Presenter (s)
Stephanie Jacobs
Abstract or Description
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand the cultural values, beliefs and practices of African American women regarding postpartum depression.
Research Question: What are the cultural care beliefs, values and practices of African American women regarding postpartum depression?
Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) is the most prevalent perinatal mental health illness in women and affects approximately 10 to 20% of all women in the United States. African American women have a disproportionately higher prevalence of postpartum depression (35-67%) and experience it differently.
Methods: This mini-focused ethnography focused on understanding the cultural beliefs, values and practices through semi-structured interviews of four African American women about their unique cultural beliefs of postpartum depression. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using Leininger’s four phases of qualitative data analysis with the assistance of NVivo12 software program.
Results: Four African American women served as participants in the study. Data analysis resulted in the emergence of two patterns from the third phase of data analysis. The patterns identified were: “mistrust of health care providers” and “striving to be a perfect mother”, reflecting the challenges of postpartum depression of the four participants.
Conclusions and Implications: Initial data from this study revealed two emerging patterns that the participants identified as significant issues regarding postpartum depression. The importance of being a good mother, as well as distrust with the medical system were pertinent issues influencing their perspective of postpartum depression. The mini-focused ethnography provided valuable insight from African American women identifying cultural perceptions and beliefs about postpartum depression. The initial findings suggest a need for future research such as a full focused ethnography to fully explore the data about postpartum depression in African American women. The findings may provide and promote culturally congruent care from nurses with the goal of improving maternal health outcomes for African American women.
Comments
Francesca Ezeokonkwo4 years ago
Nice presentation, Stephanie. This is a very important topic.
I am curious about how you recruited your participants, given that this is a somewhat sensitive topic. Thanks, Francesca
I am curious about how you recruited your participants, given that this is a somewhat sensitive topic. Thanks, Francesca
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Stephanie Jacobs4 years ago
Hi Francesa!<br />Thank you for viewing! That is a great question and I needed to use gatekeepers in the community to help recruit women initially. The potential participants would email me if they were interested in sharing their perspective about postpartum depression and they did not have to have a history of postpartum depression. I then asked each participant after they finished the interview if they knew of anyone that might be interested in participating in the study. They gave them my contact information so they could contact me themselves if they were interested. so I was recruiting a few different ways!
Melissa Kalarchian4 years ago
Hi Stephanie,
I'm glad you are taking advantage of the opportunity to present. I have a better understanding of your topic from the poster presentation. See you in class!
Dr. Kalarchian, Assoc. Dean for Research, SON
I'm glad you are taking advantage of the opportunity to present. I have a better understanding of your topic from the poster presentation. See you in class!
Dr. Kalarchian, Assoc. Dean for Research, SON
• • 1 comment
Stephanie Jacobs4 years ago
Thanks Dr. Kalarchian!!
Linda Garand4 years ago
Dear Stephanie, I thoroughly enjoyed your poster and oral presentation. The poster is a little difficult to read due to the black letters on a blue background (more contrast would be helpful). Results of your mini-study support the literature showing that African Americans endorse “mistrust of health care providers,” but your finding that your study participants are “striving to be a perfect mother” needs further exploration. High expectations may be an important aspect of postpartum depression in African American women and it can be addressed with targeted (cognitive behavioral) interventions. This is a great start to your career as a scholar!
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Stephanie Jacobs4 years ago
Hi Dr. Garand! and thank you for you feedback. I appreciate you sharing your time and expertise here. I agree with you that this pattern of high expectations needs a more thorough look and I am hopefully going to be able to explore this in a larger scale study in the fall, as I will be using this mini study as support for my proposal.
Deanna Fracul4 years ago
Hi Stephanie,
Thank you for your presentation. I was wondering if you know about Dr. Appelt and Dr. Devido's work? They might be a helpful resource as you move forward with this important work.
Thank you for your presentation. I was wondering if you know about Dr. Appelt and Dr. Devido's work? They might be a helpful resource as you move forward with this important work.
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Stephanie Jacobs4 years ago
I am familiar with Drs Appelt and Devido's work and have the privilege of having Dr. Devido on my dissertation committee! She and I have also had the opportunity to work together on another project within the field. Yes, they will be really important resources for me. Thanks so much Deanna for your feedback!!
Linda Garand4 years ago
Hi Stephanie, Did you have any study participants comment on your race or do you think your race was a barrier to discussions with your study participants? I'm wondering since I try to hire research assistants with various racial/ethnic backgrounds. I think it helps with the recruitment of subjects but it hurts when my interventionists are from a different racial background than the participant's race. Any thought? Dr. Garand
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Stephanie Jacobs4 years ago
I was concerned (and still am concerned) that this could be a barrier for me and have not overtly addressed it. I have African American women as some gatekeepers for me, but that does not change the overall issue for me. I noticed some studies in the literature addressed this issue if doing a study on a different ethnic or racial background to include another researcher of the same race as the participants to help analyze the data in order to be more objective and better address this limitation. That may be something that I ask of my committee for recommendations on. As a provider within the African American community for more than a decade, it was seldom if ever a limitation and as a matter of fact, I was told how much they trusted me and many women would openly discuss the race difference issue with me. This could be quite different though within a researcher-participant relationship. If you have any advice or further feedback on this, I would love to hear.
Bethany Funk4 years ago
Thank you for sharing your findings. With the pattern in striving to be a perfect mom, do you know how this compares to women in other cultural categories and/or if the reaction to this desire to suppress their experience with postpartum depression is the variance? (And forgive me if I am mishearing your framing!) I would be very interested to see what further research and studies you pursue. Thank you, again!
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Stephanie Jacobs4 years ago
Hi Bethany! Thank you for your question. I am not entirely sure if this is only specific to African American women. My guess from my clinical experience is that many women of all ethnicities and racial backgrounds may feel some of this. However, my study is only looking at African Americans, so from this small amount of initial data, they all clearly described this issue as influencing their beliefs about postpartum depression. That may be a good question to be answered in future research!! Thank you!
Marie Smith-East4 years ago
Stephanie, thank you for your presentation! Although from your responses to one of the commenters here stated that the participants did not have to have postpartum depression to participate in your study, did you ask any of the participants if they did experience postpartum depression? I wonder if having postpartum depression, suspected postpartum depression, versus none at all would influence their responses to questions particularly if they did or did not receive postpartum depression treatment. Again, nice work! -Dr. Smith-East
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Stephanie Jacobs4 years ago
Thank you for your feedback Dr Smith-East. No I did not specifically ask if they had a history of postpartum depression. A few of them shared that they did and I left them talk about it. Yes it may have influenced their perspective. They also had family members and friends with PPD that they spoke of too. All of these experiences definitely shape their perspectives. Thank you for your interest!
Marie Smith-East4 years ago
Thanks for sharing Stephanie! Interesting that they had family members willing to share that they experienced PPD with them. Thanks for your response!