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Updated: May 17, 2026

Using a Murine Model of Psychosocial Stress in Pregnancy as a Translationally Relevant Paradigm for Psychiatric Disorders in Mothers and Infants
Published on: June 13, 2021
Discrimination, acculturation and other predictors of depression among pregnant Hispanic women
Janiece L Walker1, R Jeanne Ruiz, Juanita J Chinn
1University of Texas at Austin, School of Nursing, Austin, TX, USA. jl_Walker@utexas.edu
Objective:
The purpose of our study was to examine the effects of socioeconomic status, acculturative stress, discrimination, and marginalization as predictors of depression in pregnant Hispanic women.
Design:
A prospective observational design was used.
Setting:
Central and Gulf coast areas of Texas in obstetrical offices.
Participants:
A convenience sample of 515 pregnant, low income, low medical risk, and self-identified Hispanic women who were between 22-24 weeks gestation was used to collect data.
Measures:
The predictor variables were socioeconomic status, discrimination, acculturative stress, and marginalization. The outcome variable was depression.
Results:
Education, frequency of discrimination, age, and Anglo marginality were significant predictors of depressive symptoms in a linear regression model, F (6, 458) = 8.36, P<.0001. Greater frequency of discrimination was the strongest positive predictor of increased depressive symptoms.
Conclusions:
It is important that health care providers further understand the impact that age and experiences of discrimination throughout the life course have on depressive symptoms during pregnancy.
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