Childhood traumatic experiences, resilience and depression among pregnant teenagers in Kampala

Abstract

Depression during pregnancy is a worldwide health concern especially in developing countries and in teenage mothers. The risk of depression for a teenager is increased if they have experienced childhood trauma that in turn affects their resilience. Their resilience is further affected if the pregnancy is unplanned, they are stigmatised or have no social support. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between childhood traumatic experiences, resilience and depression among pregnant teenagers. A sample of 136 pregnant teenagers aged 14 - 19 years participated in this study. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) was used to measure childhood traumatic experiences, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 10-item (CD-RISC-10) to measure resilience and lastly, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) to measure depression. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to find out the relationship between the variables, while regression analysis was done to find the mediation role of resilience on the relationship between childhood traumatic experiences and depression. The prevalence of depression in the sample was 59% while 67% of the pregnant teenagers scored high on resilience. The percentage levels of childhood traumatic experiences were; 56%, 52.2%, 43.4%, 68.4% and, 47.1% for physical neglect, physical abuse, emotional neglect, emotional abuse and sexual abuse, respectively. Results showed a significant relationship between childhood trauma, resilience and depression. Therefore, the results of the study highlight the importance of regarding the different forms of childhood traumatic experiences as risk factors of depression, teenage pregnancy, low resilience and other adverse effects to the pregnant teenager and with possible consequences to their children.