Heterogeneity in Maternal Mental Health
The results of this study have several implications for policy and practice. There first is the continuous need to recognize that maternal mental health should be viewed and examined as a heterogeneous construct, including mothers from diverse and low-income households (Saleem et al., 2021; Sun et al., 2019; Weiss et al., 2021). It is important for practitioners to recognize this heterogeneity and avoid making assumptions or generalizations about mothers’ mental health based on simplistic categories. Practitioners should also tailor interventions based on the specific profiles of mental health. The identification of different mental health profiles, such as those with above-average stress but below clinical concern or those with clinical levels of depression and high stress, suggest the need for tailored interventions that address the specific needs of mothers with different profiles. One-size-fits-all approaches may not be effective, and interventions should be customized to address mothers’ unique challenges and experiences based on their mental health profiles.
The findings from this study also highlight the importance of considering the impact of external events, such as pandemics: The study’s findings indicate that the onset of COVID-19 had significant impacts on maternal mental health profiles, with notable changes in the frequency and distribution of different profiles identified during COVID-19, compared to before. Interestingly, a new profile was identified during COVID-19, with mothers above clinical cut-off levels in depression and anxiety with extremely high-stress scores. In addition to maternal mental health changes clinically and descriptively with the onset of COVID-19, there were large shifts in the frequency or distribution of mothers across the clinical mental health profiles. First, we see a large decrease (from 77.7% to 49.4%) in the frequency of mothers in the below clinical concerns profile prior to COVID-19. In the same direction, there was increased frequency in the stressed approaching clinical concern profile and clinically depressed and highly stressed profiles. Finally, of greatest clinical concern were mothers with clinical levels of anxiety and depression, and over double stress average stress levels of Canadian mothers. This highlights the importance of acknowledging and addressing the potential effects of external events on mental health outcomes and tailoring interventions accordingly.