Research Library

Gaps identified

• Cause-and-effect relationships cannot be determined by this research. Additionally, certain factors were not accounted for (e.g. immigration class, ethnicity).

Key recommendations

• Initiatives for community belonging and increased social support may improve maternal depression and/or anxiety of African immigrant women. Settlement and integration programs have an important role in doing this.

Key findings

• Within 2 years of giving birth, nearly 1/3 of the participants met the cutoff score for depression, and 12.1% met the criteria for anxiety.
• The majority of women with depression had a low sense of community belonging and were recent immigrants.
• Maternal depression was also significantly associated with age, employment, local friends, and access to non-emergency medical care.
• Conversely, the majority of women with anxiety were not recent immigrants, however they similarly had a low sense of community belonging.

Location

• Alberta

Community organizations

Integration timeline

Key population

Open access – No