Effect of perceived husband's support on postpartum depression: Mediating role of need for approval

Objective: To examine the mediating role of need of approval between perceived husband's support and postpartum depression. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2017 to May 2018 and comprised women diagnosed with postpartum depression at different public-sector hospitals of district Gujarat in the Punjab province of Pakistan. Urdu versions of the Marital Empathy Scale, the Need for Approval subscale of the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale Form A-17, and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale were used to collect relevant data which was then analysed using SPSS (version 26). Results: Of the 170 women, 101(59.4%) belonged to rural background, and 108(63.5%) had a girl as their last child. The overall mean age was 29.81 +/- 5.66 years (range: 18-42 years). Perceived husband's support had negative significant direct effect on need of approval (p<0.01) and postpartum depression (p<0.01). Need of approval had significant positive direct effect on postpartum depression (p<0.05). The significant indirect effect of perceived husband's support through need of approval on postpartum depression was negative (p<0.001). Conclusion: Perceived husband's support reduced the need of approval, which in turn, lowered the degree of postpartum depression.