Psychological distress, depression, anxiety, stress, and exercise in Australian and New Zealand mothers: A cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Postnatal psychological well-being is a complex issue characterized by major changes in physical, social, and emotional health. In response to addressing limitations of previous research this study aimed to: (i) quantify psychological distress, depression, anxiety, and stress in a large sample of Australian and New Zealand mothers and to compare to Australian norm data; and (ii) identify any significant differences in psychological distress, depression, anxiety, and stress of the mothers when grouped according to their self-reported exercise incidence. Self-reported short-form version Depression Anxiety Stress Scale data were collected from 3601 Australia and New Zealand mothers with at least one child under the age of 5 years. Results demonstrated that this sample of mothers had significantly poorer psychological well-being than the general Australian population. Furthermore, with the exception of anxiety, psychological well-being of mothers who reported exercising three to four times per week was significantly and meaningfully more positive compared to those mothers that reported not to exercise.