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.