Events
Dissertation Presentation: Perinatal Mental Health Disorders
School of Social Work PhD Candidate Stephanie Hanson presents her dissertation, "Birth Trauma, Empowerment, and Perinatal Mental Health Disorders: An Exploration of Relationships Between Psychosocial Concepts."
Advisor: Lynette M. Renner, PhD
Committee: Mimi Choy-Brown, PhD; Joseph Merighi, PhD; Susan Marshall Mason, PhD (Division of
Epidemiology and Community Health)
When: August 26, 2025, 10 a.m. CDT
Where: Room 155 Peters Hall or via Zoom.
Dissertation abstract: Perinatal mental health disorders (PMHDs) are the most common complication following childbirth and impact one in five women around the world. There are six PMHDs currently recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – 5th Edition: perinatal depression, perinatal anxiety, perinatal post-traumatic stress disorder, perinatal obsessive-compulsive disorder, perinatal bipolar disorder, and postpartum psychosis.
There are several known risk factors for the development of PMHDs; however, many are not preventable. This presents an opportunity for exploration of potential psychosocial risk factors that may contribute to the development of PMHDs that could be targeted in the development of future interventions to reduce the impact of PMHDs on negative health outcomes associated with their presentation.
This dissertation used both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the relationships between birth trauma, PMHDs, and concepts negatively associated with empowerment through a series of three manuscripts. Modified Poisson regression and linear regression analyses were used for quantitative analysis. Thematic analysis was used for qualitative analysis.
- The first manuscript identified a positive association between birth trauma and PMHDs.
- The second manuscript identified a positive association between birth trauma and helplessness and a positive association between helplessness and PMHDs.
- The qualitative manuscript identified three themes as factors that contributed to feelings of helplessness and powerlessness in the context of PMHDs during the perinatal period:
- 1) PMHDs can reinforce helplessness and helplessness, in turn, can reinforce PMHDs
- 2) Lack of provider engagement in patient concerns as a driver of concepts negatively associated with empowerment
- 3) Internal versus external attribution of helplessness and powerlessness
Photographs taken at the event may be used in University of Minnesota print and online publications, promotions, or shared with the CEHD community.
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