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Depression and anxiety are among the commonest mental disorders that may affect women during pregnancy. This study aimed at getting a better understanding of how these variables impact on the quality of life of women during the perinatal period and how social support and intimate partner relationship moderate that relationship. In this study, 122 women in Accra, Ghana, completed a series of self –report measures including the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21), The Intimate Bond Measure (IBM) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL–BREF). Results indicated 37.7% of the perinatal women experienced moderate to severe symptoms of depression and 16.4% of moderate to severe symptoms of anxiety. While there was a negative relationship between common mental disorders (CMDs) and quality of life during pregnancy, social support partially moderated this relationship. Intimate partner relationship, however, did not act as a buffer against the effects of CMDS on quality of life. CMDs were shown to have adverse effects on birth outcomes in terms of birth weight. The study demonstrated that perinatal mental health problems exist among women in Accra during pregnancy and that it has adverse outcomes for their quality of life with social support serving as a robust buffer in these relationships.

Funder: Edinburgh Centre for Data, Culture and Society, BACKGROUND: This paper enumerates and characterizes latent classes of adverse childhood experiences and investigates how they relate to prenatal substance use (i.e., smoking, alcohol, and other drugs) and poor infant outcomes (i.e., infant prematurity and low birthweight) across eight low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). METHODS: A total of 1189 mother-infant dyads from the Evidence for Better Lives Study cohort were recruited. Latent class analysis using the Bolck, Croon, and Hagenaars (BCH) 3-step method with auxiliary multilevel logistic regressions was performed. RESULTS: Three high-risk classes and one low-risk class emerged: (1) highly maltreated (7%, n = 89), (2) emotionally and physically abused with intra-familial violence exposure (13%, n = 152), (3), emotionally abused (40%, n = 474), and (4) low household dysfunction and abuse (40%, n = 474). Pairwise comparisons between classes indicate higher probabilities of prenatal drug use in the highly maltreated and emotionally abused classes compared with the low household dysfunction and abuse class. Additionally, the emotionally and physically abused with intra-familial violence exposure class had higher probability of low birthweight than the three remaining classes. CONCLUSION: Our results highlight the multifaceted nature of ACEs and underline the potential importance of exposure to childhood adversities on behaviors and outcomes in the perinatal period. This can inform the design of antenatal support to better address these challenges.

Additional file 1: Table S1. Instruments used, questions, and response categories. Table S2. Demographic characteristics of the sample from the Evidence for Better Lives Study (n = 1 189). Table S3. Adverse childhood experiences item endorsement frequencies and relative frequencies. Table S4. Class counts and proportions for the latent classes based on their most likely latent class membership.

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-jad-10.1177_10870547221105064 for Associations Between ADHD Symptoms and Maternal and Birth Outcomes: An Exploratory Analysis in a Multi-Country Cohort of Expectant Mothers by Aja Louise Murray, Diana Taut, Adriana Baban, Chad Lance Hemady, Susan Walker, Joseph Osafo, Siham Sikander, Mark Tomlinson, Stefani Du Toit, Marguerite Marlow, Catherine L. Ward, Asvini Fernando, Bernadette Madrid, Vo Van Thang, Hoang Dinh Tuyen, Michael Dunne, Claire Hughes, Pasco Fearon, Sara Valdebenito and Manuel Eisner in Journal of Attention Disorders

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-jad-10.1177_10870547221105064 for Associations Between ADHD Symptoms and Maternal and Birth Outcomes: An Exploratory Analysis in a Multi-Country Cohort of Expectant Mothers by Aja Louise Murray, Diana Taut, Adriana Baban, Chad Lance Hemady, Susan Walker, Joseph Osafo, Siham Sikander, Mark Tomlinson, Stefani Du Toit, Marguerite Marlow, Catherine L. Ward, Asvini Fernando, Bernadette Madrid, Vo Van Thang, Hoang Dinh Tuyen, Michael Dunne, Claire Hughes, Pasco Fearon, Sara Valdebenito and Manuel Eisner in Journal of Attention Disorders

Additional file 1. Chaka study.

Additional file 1.

Interview guide. (DOCX 15 kb)

Globally, there seems to be a shift from the emphasis on retributive function of punishment towards a restorative mode. The study sought to find out the attitudes of Ghanaians toward the use of community service as a sentencing condition for adult non-violent offenders over incarceration. Twenty four (24) persons were drawn from a number of stakeholders within the Accra and interviewed. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data, with results showing that generally, Ghanaians expressed a favourable attitude towards community service as means of tackling the sanitation challenge in Accra. The reasons undergirding this attitude were Psychosocial including reformatory tool, decongesting agenda, cost effectiveness, and deterrence appeal. However, these favourable attitudes were circumstantial as considerations depended on: Offenses’ gravity, luxuries and necessities. With such favourable attitudes, it is recommended that community sentencing be considered as an alternative to custodial sentencing of petty offenders. Thus, there is the urgent call for a reexamination of Ghana’s criminal justice system towards embracing some forms of restorative justice such as community service.Keywords: Community Service, Incarceration, Sentencing, Social Learning, Deterrence

Interview guide. (DOCX 13Â kb)