EL PASO, Texas — Many agree that parents need to support their children — but what about grandparents? Grandparents may be an important factor in good maternal mental health, according to a new study published recently.
The study mainly focused on how mothers cope with depression and the use of antidepressants. This study investigated mothers’ relationships with their own parents and how parents/grandparents lived, acted, supported, and interacted with young mothers.
The study was conducted in Finland and followed over 480,000 mothers of young children over 14 years. Researchers collected data on mothers from 2000 to 2014. They looked at factors such as whether the grandparents were in a committed relationship, age, health, and employment.
What they found was that mothers, especially those who were separated from their partners, may be less likely to use antidepressants.
“Overall, maternal grandmother characteristics appeared to be most important, while paternal grandparents played a smaller role,” the study summary states. “These findings suggest that increases are associated with decreased need to receive support, and predict decreased need to receive support.” Maternal depression is more likely, especially among separated mothers. ”
Across the studies, analyzes found antidepressant use was especially high among mothers living far away from their parents, grandparents in poor health, and those who were unemployed or elderly.
Avery Martinez covers mental health in the borderlands as part of ABC-7’s Be Mindful initiative. He is also a member of Report for America. RFA places talented emerging journalists in his ABC-7-like newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities. Report for America is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, an award-winning nonprofit journalism organization dedicated to rebuilding journalism from the ground up..
