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Understanding Parenting and Pregnant Women’s Perceptions of Accessing, Utilizing, and Barriers to Seeking Social Support for MentalWell-Being Hirani, Saima; Sandhu, Monique; Bandara, Nilanga Aki; Bungay, Vicky; Twomey, Melissa

Abstract

Social support has been considered essential for enhancing mental well-being. However, perceptions of support are crucial for promoting psychological well-being, which is shaped by one’s social position across axes of socioeconomic status and gender. This study sought to improve understanding of how pregnant and parenting women living in socioeconomic challenging circumstances perceive social support in order to identify what is working and what needs improvement in mobilizing existing support services. Virtual focus group discussions were conducted with twenty-four women living in British Columbia, Canada. Five themes emerged using thematic analysis: lived realities of motherhood; types of social support women access; barriers they face when accessing support; impact of the pandemic on support services; and women’s recommendations to improve support services. Our findings inform a better understanding of women’s contextual realities in which they live and the need for inclusive supportive approaches for women and their families.

Item Metadata

Title
Understanding Parenting and Pregnant Women’s Perceptions of Accessing, Utilizing, and Barriers to Seeking Social Support for MentalWell-Being
Creator
Hirani, Saima; Sandhu, Monique; Bandara, Nilanga Aki; Bungay, Vicky; Twomey, Melissa
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Date Issued
2025-03-12
Description
Social support has been considered essential for enhancing mental well-being. However, perceptions of support are crucial for promoting psychological well-being, which is shaped by one’s social position across axes of socioeconomic status and gender. This study sought to improve understanding of how pregnant and parenting women living in socioeconomic challenging circumstances perceive social support in order to identify what is working and what needs improvement in mobilizing existing support services. Virtual focus group discussions were conducted with twenty-four women living in British Columbia, Canada. Five themes emerged using thematic analysis: lived realities of motherhood; types of social support women access; barriers they face when accessing support; impact of the pandemic on support services; and women’s recommendations to improve support services. Our findings inform a better understanding of women’s contextual realities in which they live and the need for inclusive supportive approaches for women and their families.
Subject
women’s mental health; mothers; perceived social support; support interventions
Genre
Article
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2025-05-05
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
CC BY 4.0
DOI
10.14288/1.0448747
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90993
Affiliation
Applied Science, Faculty of; Medicine, Faculty of; Non UBC; Medicine, Department of; Nursing, School of
Citation
Behavioral Sciences 15 (3): 348 (2025)
Publisher DOI
10.3390/bs15030348
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty; Researcher
Rights URI
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
DSpace

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Rights

CC BY 4.0