How do Psychological distress and social support associate with health-related quality of life in pregnant women? The mediating role of self-compassion, resilience and emotion regulation

Abstract

Abstract Background Although there are the plenty of clinical data available during COVID-19 pandemic, rare researches on the health-related quality of life of pregnant women have been published. We therefore investigate the extent to which self-compassion, resilience and emotion regulation mediate the association between psychological distress and social support with health-related quality of life in pregnant women during Covid-19 pandemic.Method A cross-sectional study design was engaged. Participants were recruited from health service centers of Hamadan, Iran. Data was collected from 370 pregnant women. Participants completed self-report measures. SPSS-26 software was used for descriptive statistics and correlation matrix, and LISREL-10.20 software was used to path analysis and determine the relationships between variables within the model.Results Correlational analyses revealed that the correlation coefficient of quality of life with psychological distress was − 0.45, with social support was 0.36, with self-compassion was 0.50, with resilience was 0.47 and with emotion regulation was − 0.50. All these coefficients are significant at the level of 0.001. Psychological distress has an indirect effect (β = -0.20) on women's quality of life through the three mediating variables of resilience, self-compassion and emotion regulation. Social support also has an indirect effect (β = 0.14) on women's quality of life through three mediators.Conclusion These findings help a better understanding of the psychological impact of the pandemic on the studied group as a crucial step in guiding policies and interventions to maintain their health-related quality of life.