Behavioral and Psychosocial Health of New Mothers and Associations With Contextual Factors and Perceived Health.

Objective: To test the association of behavioral and psychosocial health domains with contextual variables and perceived health in ethnically and economically diverse postpartum women.

Design: Mail survey of a stratified random sample.

Setting: Southwestern community in Texas.

Participants: Non-Hispanic White, African American, and Hispanic women (N = 168).

Methods: A questionnaire was sent to a sample of 600 women. The adjusted response rate was 32.8%. The questionnaire covered behavioral (diet, physical activity, smoking, and alcohol use) and psychosocial (depression symptoms and body image) health, contextual variables (race/ethnicity, income, perceived stress, and social support), and perceived health. Hypotheses were tested using linear and logistic regression.

Results: Body image, dietary behaviors, physical activity behaviors, and depression symptoms were all significantly correlated (Spearman ρ = -.15 to .47). Higher income was associated with increased odds of higher alcohol use (more than 1 drink on 1 to 4 days in a 14-day period). African American ethnicity was correlated with less healthy dietary behaviors and Hispanic ethnicity with less physical activity. In multivariable regressions, perceived stress was associated with less healthy dietary behaviors, increased odds of depression, and decreased odds of higher alcohol use, whereas social support was associated with less body image dissatisfaction, more physical activity, and decreased odds of depression. All behavioral and psychosocial domains were significantly correlated with perceived health, with higher alcohol use related to more favorable perceived health. In regressions analyses, perceived stress was a significant contextual predictor of perceived health.

Conclusion: Stress and social support had more consistent relationships to behavioral and psychosocial variables than race/ethnicity and income level.