Experiences and perceptions of mothers recovering from depression with regard to the impact of depression on family roles and coping skills.

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to explore the subjective experiences and perceptions of mothers diagnosed with depression. The study investigated mothers' understandings of the extent to which their illness had impacted on their appraisal of their mothering and associated roles within the family. Furthermore, it investigated mothers' coping skills with regard to their illness. The study was qualitative in nature, utilising semi-structured interviews with six patients who had been diagnosed with depression. Participants were drawn from a Hospital (Outpatient psychiatry clinic) in Delft, Cape Town. Their age range was between 24 and 35 years old. All participants had one child that was two years or older. The results indicated that participants viewed themselves and their relationships in negative ways. They demonstrated different coping mechanisms in the study. All of them said that they relied mostly on divine inspiration and had a positive perspective on life. All the participants said that they benefited immensely from the support received from friends and neighbours. Two participants were abusing drugs. All of the participants were unemployed at the time of the interview. The researcher therefore could not explore the impact of the participants' depression on their work roles. Fifty percent of the participants said that they had different sources of finance. They were either self employed or supported by their partners. The financial position of all participants differed from person to person. It is then advisable that future researcher would have to obtain participants who were employed or in a similar financial bracket. It is advisable that a female researcher should conduct a similar study in the future. My gender could have had a negative impact in the study. The fact that I am a male could have had a negative impact on the participants. If all the participants were screened to ascertain whether all of them had partners, the research could have been better. That would allow the researcher to interview only participants who had partners in their lives. In my study, only two participants had partners in their lives during their depression.