Pregnancy-related anxiety and its relationship with perceived social support, family function and resilience among Chinese pregnant women—A structural equation model analysis

Background: Accumulating evidence suggests that pregnancy-related anxiety (PRA) has adverse impacts on maternity health and infant development. A substantial body of literature has documented the important influence of family function, perceived social support and resilience on PRA. However, research identifying the mediating mechanisms underlying this relationship in China are still lacking. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the prevalence of PRA under the three-child policy in China, and also explore whether resilience mediated the effect of family function and perceived social support on PRA. Methods A total of 579 pregnant women were recruited in this cross-section study from a teaching hospital in Chongqing, China. Participants were required to complete the following questionnaires: the demographic form, the Chinese Pregnancy-related Anxiety scale, the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, the APGAR Family Care Index Scale, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Pearson correlation analysis was utilized to examine the rudimentary relationship among the study variables. Bootstrapping analyses in the structural equation modeling were applied to identify the significance of indirect effects. Results There were 41.4% of pregnant Chinese women indicating PRA. Correlational analyses indicated that perceived social support, family function and resilience were negatively associated with PRA ( r = -0.47, P  < 0.01; r = -0.43, P  < 0.01; r = -0.37, P  < 0.01, respectively). The results of bootstrapping analyses demonstrated significant indirect effects of perceived social support (β = -0.098, 95% CI [-0.184, -0.021]) and family function (β = -0.049, 95% CI [-0.103, -0.011]) on PRA via resilience. Conclusions Chinese pregnant women are suffering from high levels of PRA. Better family function and perceived social support might reduce the occurrence of PRA, as well as by the mediating effects of resilience.