Abstract :
This study investigated the association between key psychological and familial risk factors, specifically neuroticism, emotion regulation strategies, depressive symptomatology, and family system functioning and postpartum depression among women. A sample of 500 women diagnosed with postpartum depression was recruited from selected government hospitals using a non-probability sampling approach. A cross-sectional correlational design was employed, with data collected at a single time point. Participants completed standardized self-report measures, including the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), and the Big Five Inventory (BFI). Descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, and distributional properties) and inferential analyses, including independent samples t-tests and one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA), were conducted using SPSS version 23. The results demonstrated robust and statistically significant associations among all study variables, underscoring the central role of personality traits, emotion regulation processes, and family system dynamics in the etiology and maintenance of postpartum depression. Correlation analyses indicated significant positive associations between postpartum depression, neuroticism, maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, and dysfunctional family system characteristics. These findings suggest that these risk factors play a substantial role in exacerbating depressive symptom severity and impairing interpersonal functioning during the postpartum phase. These findings highlight the need for integrative, family-informed, and personality-sensitive interventions to mitigate postpartum depressive outcomes in low- and middle-income settings.