title: Negative Life Events and Antenatal Depression among Pregnant Women in Rural China: The Role of Negative Automatic Thoughts.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Few studies have looked at the relationship between psychological and the mental health status of pregnant women in rural China. The current study aims to explore the potential mediating effect of negative automatic thoughts between negative life events and antenatal depression.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected in June 2012 and October 2012. 495 rural pregnant women were interviewed. Depressive symptoms were measured by the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale, stresses of pregnancy were measured by the pregnancy pressure scale, negative automatic thoughts were measured by the automatic thoughts questionnaire, and negative life events were measured by the life events scale for pregnant women. We used logistic regression and path analysis to test the mediating effect.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The prevalence of antenatal depression was 13.7%. In the logistic regression, the only socio-demographic and health behavior factor significantly related to antenatal depression was sleep quality. Negative life events were not associated with depression in the fully adjusted model. Path analysis showed that the eventual direct and general effects of negative automatic thoughts were 0.39 and 0.51, which were larger than the effects of negative life events.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study suggested that there was a potentially significant mediating effect of negative automatic thoughts. Pregnant women who had lower scores of negative automatic thoughts were more likely to suffer less from negative life events which might lead to antenatal depression.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Social Development and Public Policy, China Institute of Health, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiaohua
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9991-4501
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Social Development and Public Policy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Fangnan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Social Development and Public Policy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoning
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Maternal and Child Health Hospital in Mianzhu County, Deyang, Sichuan, China.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: School of Social Development and Public Policy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xuehan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: School of Social Development and Public Policy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xianglei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: Teacher Education College, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
authors.forename: Xuemei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: School of Social Development and Public Policy, China Institute of Health, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Donghua
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: School of Social Development and Public Policy, China Institute of Health, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhiyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Qu
mesh_terms: D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D011247:Pregnancy; D037841:Pregnant People / Q000523:psychology; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires