SynthesisBMC pregnancy and childbirth2026
Role of psychological resilience and social support in perinatal depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPerinatal Depression (PND) is a prevalent mental health disorder with adverse effects on both maternal and infant outcomes. Although psychological resilience and social support are widely considered protective factors against PND, the existing evidence is quite inconsistent. Consequently, this meta-analysis aimed to systematically assess and quantify the associations among PND, psychological resilience, and social support.
methodsThis systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Six electronic databases, grey literature, and reference lists were searched up to March 18, 2025. Studies were eligible if they investigated the association between perinatal depression and resilience or social support. The study quality was assessed using the AHRQ checklist for cross-sectional studies and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for cohort designs. A random-effects meta-analysis was conducted in R to calculate pooled odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs).
resultsTwenty-nine studies (N = 18,213) were included. The overall meta-analysis showed no significant association between the combined protective factors of resilience and social support with perinatal depression (OR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.66-1.05). In subgroup analyses based on exposure levels, studies that compared women with higher resilience to those with lower levels showed a reduced risk of postpartum depression (OR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.62-0.87), while studies that used low resilience as the exposure group reported increased odds (OR = 3.54, 95% CI: 2.34-5.34). A similar pattern was observed for social support: studies using greater support as the exposure found a protective effect (OR = 0.65, 95% CI: 0.50-0.84), whereas those using minimal support as the exposure reported higher odds (OR = 3.90, 95% CI: 2.46-6.18). These contrasting directions reflect differences in how primary studies defined the reference group, and the pooled estimates were therefore derived from distinct study sets rather than from the same data. Effect sizes also varied by maternal age and study design. Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of the findings, and no evidence of publication bias was detected.
conclusionHigh resilience and strong social support are associated with reduced risk of PND, whereas low resilience and minimal support are linked to increased risk. Although the overall pooled association was not statistically significant, subgroup findings underscore the importance of considering study context and reference group definitions. These results highlight the value of integrating resilience-building and social support interventions into perinatal mental health strategies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.