S. Doucet¹ and N. Letourneau²

¹PhD Student in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of New Brunswick (UNB); Stipend Instructor, University of New Brunswick Department of Nursing, PO Box 5050, Saint John, NB, Canada. ²Professor, Faculty of Nursing and Canada Research Chair in Healthy Child Development at UNB, PO Box 4400, Fredericton, NB, Canada.

Abstract

Objective: To explore the relationship between coping mechanisms and suicidal ideations among women who experience symptoms of postpartum depression.

Design:  This exploratory descriptive study used secondary data from a study of women who experienced symptoms of postpartum depression.

Participants: Convenience and purposive sampling were used to obtain the community sample of 40 women who experienced symptoms of postpartum depression.

Methods:  Binary logistic regression was employed to explore emotion-focused coping, avoidance-focused coping, problem-focused coping, and religious coping as predictors of suicidal ideations.

Results:  Approximately 27% of the sample reported suicidal ideations within the past seven days. The results showed that lower levels of emotion-focused coping and higher levels of avoidance-focused and religious coping predicted suicidal ideations in participants. Problem-focused coping did not predict suicidal ideations.

Conclusion:  Overall, our findings provide support for the importance of coping mechanisms as predictors of suicidal ideations among women who experience symptoms of postpartum depression. The results illustrate the need for health professionals to conduct routine assessments on coping strategies and thoughts of suicide when caring for postpartum women, as well as the need to integrate coping approaches in the prevention and treatment of suicidal ideations.