The effects of postpartum depression literacy and religious coping on postpartum depression and mental well-being

The study was carried out to evaluate the effects of postpartum depression literacy and religious coping on postpartum depression and mental well-being. This analytical-cross-sectional study was conducted between July 2024 and May 2025 with 386 puerperant women hospitalized in the Maternity Ward of a Training and Research Hospital in a province in northern Türkiye. The study data were collected using the 'Personal Introduction Form', 'Postpartum Depression Literacy Scale' (PoDLiS), 'Religious Coping Scale', 'Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale' (EPDS), and 'Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale' (WEMWBS). Descriptive statistics, Spearman's rho correlation test, and path analysis were used in the statistical evaluation of the data. The mean age of the puerperant women was 28.51±5.22 and the mean number of births was 1.88±1.00. The total mean PoDLiS score of the puerperant women was 3.40 ± 0.48, the total mean Positive Religious Coping Subscale score was 25.16 ± 4.35, and the total mean Negative Religious Coping Subscale score was 7.33 ± 3.32. The total mean EPDS score of the puerperant women was 6.16 ± 5.21 and their total mean WEMWBS score was 58.8 ± 9.52. While no statistically significant relationship was found between the total mean PoDLiS score and the total mean EPDS score of the puerperant women (p>0.05), a weak and statistically significant positive relationship was found between the total mean WEMWBS score (p<0.05). A weak and statistically significant positive relationship was found between the total mean Positive Religious Coping Subscale and the total mean WEMWBS score of the puerperant women (p<0.001). A positive and statistically significant relationship was found between the total mean Negative Religious Coping Subscale score and the total mean EPDS score of the puerperant women (p<0.05). When the total PoDLiS, total Positive Religious Coping Subscale, and total Negative Religious Coping Subscale were evaluated separately, it was seen that they explained 4.8% of the total EPDS score and 7% of the total WEMWBS score. It was found that as postpartum depression literacy increased in puerperant women, mental well-being increased. Moreover, it was observed that as puerperant women's positive religious coping increased, their mental well-being increased, and as their negative religious coping increased, their risk of depression increased.