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Impact of Having a First Child on Maternal Depressive Symptoms: Does the Birth of a Mother's First Baby Increase Symptoms of Depression in the Mother?
Author(s) -
Jung EunHee,
Yoo Joan P.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
asian social work and policy review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.286
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1753-1411
pISSN - 1753-1403
DOI - 10.1111/aswp.12033
Subject(s) - depression (economics) , depressive symptoms , intervention (counseling) , psychology , welfare , panel survey , medicine , clinical psychology , psychiatry , developmental psychology , demography , anxiety , sociology , political science , law , economics , macroeconomics
Previous studies on the impact of having a first child on a mother's psychological well‐being has not been extensively examined in Korea. The present study aims to understand how having a first child is associated with a first‐time mother's depressive symptoms when compared with their childless counterparts. A sample of 140 women aged 20–40 years, married, and childless in wave 1 of the Korean National Welfare Panel Study ( KOWEPS ) was selected. The depressive symptoms of women who became mothers between wave 1 and wave 2 of the study and those who remained childless were compared using CES ‐ D . Two different types of analytical methods (i.e. pooled OLS , fixed effects model) were employed. The results consistently indicated that Korean mothers were more depressed after the birth of the first child than wives without a child. Employment status and satisfaction of social relationship were associated with women's depression in the fixed effect model. The consistent finding that shows a negative association between having a first child and maternal depressive symptoms provides empirical grounds for the development of prevention and intervention programs for first‐time mothers. Implications of the study findings are discussed.