Laypersons’ beliefs about mental illnesses influence their experience of mental illnesses and their likelihood of seeking help. In relation to PPD, such beliefs include culture-specific beliefs held by those without medical expertise about the nature of PPD, causes, and appropriate coping strategies. At the center of such a conceptual model are etiological beliefs, i.e. the attributions people make about PPD.

In the same study I described earlier, we explored how Chinese mothers make attributions of PPD by asking them to tell stories (stories of their own experience of PPD and stories of other women’s experiences with PPD). We found:

• Chinese mothers often take a situational approach to PPD, attributing it to external factors that could be changed (e.g., lack of support from in-laws) or to internal factors that will disappear over time (e.g., hormonal fluctuation).
• As a result, these mothers often choose to cope with their PPD symptoms through self-help strategies such as talking to someone, enlisting help, and positive thinking. Seeking professional help is not a preferred coping strategy.
• Furthermore, participants often make different attributions about the PPD experiences of themselves and the experiences of others. In explaining other women’s PPD symptoms, they are more likely to evoke the myths about gender and motherhood in the Chinese culture and blame PPD on these mothers’ personality flaws, husbands’ affairs, and financial hardships.

Tang, L., Zhang, X., & Zhu, R. (2020). What causes postpartum depression and how to cope with it: A phenomenological study of mothers in China. Health Communication. Doi: 10.1080/10410236.2020.1771063. Published online first. [Full article]