Study Objectives

My research topic of interest this summer is postpartum depression in Chinese women. There has been some recent work done in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but surprisingly little in mainland China. The paucity of literature makes this basic prevalence study quite exciting. We will also investigate sociocultural risk factors and any protective factors against PPD that may exist in the Chinese culture.

From my background reading, it seems that depression is now considered to be a continuous, rather than a discrete, disease. Therefore, postpartum depression would not be a distinct disease classification, but rather, the conditions of the postpartum period would be triggers for a depressive episode. Indeed, the greatest risk factors for PPD are an individual or family history of depression and symptoms of depression/anxiety during pregnancy. Associated risk factors are race, financial stress, and low self-esteem.

A big protective risk factor is the presence of social support, and I hope to explore that within the lens of the Chinese postpartum practice of zuoyue (Mandarin) or peiyue (Cantonese). I am personally interested in studying the risk factors of financial stress (wealth gaps in China highly noted after economic liberalization), ethnic origin (parellel to the American risk factor of race), and effects of the one-child social policy on individual family planning and mental health. The last, of course, will be impossible to study rigorously in the current research plan, but we may find associations, for example, with history of abortion and expectations for the baby's gender. (Link for more modern China propaganda posters)