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Mental Health Literacy of Maternal and Paternal Postnatal Depression in a Community Sample of Romanian Adults

Published Online:April 09, 2020https://doi.org/10.1037/ipp0000130

Abstract

Postnatal depression affects a large proportion of Romanian parents, but no existing research has examined knowledge of postnatal depression in Romanian adults. To rectify this, we examined the ability of Romanian adults to correctly identify cases of maternal and paternal postnatal depression, as well as attitudes toward cases of postnatal depression. A total of 1,248 Romanian adults were presented with vignettes describing cases of maternal or paternal postnatal depression. Based on the vignettes, participants were asked to report if they thought anything was wrong with the targets and, if so, to describe what they thought was wrong. Participants also rated the targets on several attitudinal dimensions. Participants were more likely to indicate that something was wrong when the target was female (67.9%) compared with male (46.4%). Of those who believed something was wrong, 57.7% of participants correctly described the female target as experiencing postnatal depression, but only 37.1% did so for the male target. Women held significantly more positive attitudes toward the targets than men, particularly when the target was female. Mental health literacy of postnatal depression appears to be poor in Romanian adults compared with other national groups, especially in the case of paternal postnatal depression.

Impact and Implications

Routine screening for depression and other mental health conditions in Romanian parents, alongside national educational and awareness programs, is urgently needed. Such efforts, in turn, are likely to reduce the social and economic burden of poor mental health literacy of postnatal depression in a rapidly developing nation. The results of this study suggest that knowledge of postnatal depression is relatively poor in Romania, particularly in terms of paternal (as opposed to maternal) postnatal depression. This may reflect the historical marginalization of the experiences of fathers experiencing psychological distress both in terms of public awareness and research and practice. A better understanding of public understandings of postnatal depression may assist health care practitioners in diverse national settings better serve the mental health care needs of new parents.

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