engleski

Personal growth after childbirth in Europe and Africa.

Background: Most research looking at psychological adjustment following childbirth has focused on negative outcomes such as depression and anxiety. In comparison, positive psychological outcomes have been relatively ignored. A growing body of research has examined the potential for positive change following challenging and traumatic events, which is known as posttraumatic growth (Tedeschi, Park, & Calhoun, 1998). Most research on growth has been carried out in Western countries, which has led to speculation that growth may be a culture bound phenomenon. This talk will present an overview of the research we have carried out in Europe (UK and Croatia) and Africa (The Gambia) which explores psychological growth in women after childbirth. Methods: One cross-sectional (Croatia) and two longitudinal (UK and The Gambia) questionnaire studies were conducted to explore levels and correlates of growth reported by women after childbirth. Results: Responses to the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (UK and Croatia) or an adapted scale of growth (The Gambia) showed that at least a small degree of positive change following childbirth was reported by 48% of women in the UK, 63% of women in Croatia and 64% of women in The Gambia. Our studies also show that women in all three countries generally report growth in similar domains. For example, women report higher levels of growth in the appreciation of life domain and the lowest levels in the spiritual growth domain. However, some interesting culture-specific variations in factors associated with growth were found. In The Gambia, postnatal support from family and friends positively predicted growth, whereas the husband’s support was not related to growth. Therefore, although growth and some of its correlates may be experienced cross-culturally, proximate and distal sociocultural factors should be considered. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that growth can occur following normative challenging events such as childbirth and provide some support for the universality of the concept of growth. It is important to jointly consider psychological distress and growth to gain a more comprehensive understanding of psychological adjustment following childbirth. There is also a need for more specification in theories of growth regarding culture and a consideration of measurement of growth in different cultures.

Childbirth; cross-cultural research; Post-traumatic Growth; questionnaire; resilience

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