Family Community Integration and Maternal Mental Health
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Family Community Integration and Maternal Mental Health Sara Wiesel Cullen • Phyllis L. Solomon
Published online: 13 November 2011 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011
Abstract While the majority of women with mental health problems (MHPs) are mothers, little is known about the community integration (CI) of these women and their children. Given that poorer mental health status has been linked with lower CI, CI has become a long standing goal of mental health policy. Data from a national survey examined the association of maternal mental health status with the physical, social, and psychological integration of families. After adjusting for sociodemographics, mothers with MHPs reported similar physical integration but less social and psychological integration. Interventions focused on improving social networks, scarce resources, and neighborhood safety are needed for families impacted by maternal MHPs. Keywords Maternal mental health Community integration Social support
Many women with mental health problems (MHPs) are mothers (Nicholson et al. 2004). MHPs cause distress and impaired functioning in one or more areas of life, including sense of well-being, and are characterized by changes in emotions, behavior, and thinking (Blegen et al. 2010), all of which likely impact the health and well-being of family systems. Under a social model of health as described by the S. W. Cullen (&) School of Social Policy & Practice, University of Pennsylvania, 3815 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6179, USA e-mail: [email protected] P. L. Solomon School of Social Policy & Practice, University of Pennsylvania, 3701 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6214, USA e-mail: [email protected]
World Health Organization (WHO), health or mental health is a concept that encompasses not just physical capacities, but social and personal resources, as well as the reciprocal relationship between individual behavioral factors and economic/psychosocial factors, which places an emphasis on the importance of examining community level determinants of health (WHO 2000). To date, there has been some research on the interplay between community environment and maternal mental health, but limited research on the integration of families impacted by maternal MHPs into their communities. Given that MHPs have been linked with lesser community integration (CI) (Bond et al. 2004), this study examines the association of maternal mental health status with the physical, social, and psychological integration of families using the National Survey on Children’s Health (NSCH). In order to examine this issue, the current study identified mothers with MHPs using the NSCH’s self-reported maternal mental health status. Identified mothers with MHPs likely include women with a broad range of mental health symptoms and diagnoses, as researchers have found substantial agreement between self-reported mental health status and other measures of mental health status, such as self-reported diagnosis, symptom severity (Watkins et al. 2001),
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