Increasing Social Support for Women via Humanizing Postpartum Depression

Women experiencing postpartum depression (PPD) often face the debilitating symptoms of depression as well as the stigmatization associated with having a mental health crisis during motherhood. Accordingly, there have been numerous calls for theoretical-based approaches to reduce the stigma and promote social support for women with PPD. Guided by stigma research, anthropomorphism literature, and attribution theory, this research explored the effect of PPD anthropomorphism (i.e., imbuing humanlike intentions and characteristics to PPD) on perceived controllability, sympathy, anger toward PPD, and willingness to provide social support (WPSS). Results of three studies revealed that humanizing PPD led to decreased perceived controllability attributed to women with PPD, resulting in increased sympathy, more anger toward PPD, and consequently, greater WPSS. This research contributes to the extant health communication literature, particularly in the realm of mental health stigma, by addressing how humanizing risk-bearing entities affects individuals' mental health related perceptions and decisions.