title: The relationships between physical violence, verbal abuse and women's psychological distress during the postpartum period.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyse the relationship between violence in the post-partum period and mothers' psychological distress.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three hundred and fifty two women responded to a questionnaire after the birth, at the Trieste Hospital (Italy), and 292 of them responded to a telephone interview 8 months later. Psychological distress was evaluated with the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ); partner and family violence were evaluated with a 28-item scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eight months post-partum, 10% of women were experiencing violence either from the partner or from another family member; 5% showed high psychological distress. Multivariate analyses show that, after adjustment for covariates, the OR for depressive symptoms was 19.17 for women experiencing partner or family violence. Being dissatisfied with their working situation, hospitalisation of the baby and pre-pregnancy mental health were also significantly associated with high GHQ scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results stress the relationship between violence in post-partum and maternal psychological distress. Measures aimed to identify and end violence against women around pregnancy could contribute to the improvement of women's mental health post-partum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy. romito@univ.trieste.it
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Romito
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pomicino
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lucchetta
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Scrimin
authors.forename: Janet Molzan
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Turan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D019052:Depression, Postpartum / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D017579:Domestic Violence / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007558:Italy; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011247:Pregnancy; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013179:Spouse Abuse / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult