Postnatal depression among the female aic youth: case of wamunyu, machakos County, Kenya

Abstract

Background: Depression is a common psychological disorder in the world today. Despite the fact that a number of studies have been conducted on depression among the general youth population, limited studies have been done on the youth in the church especially those who have fallen victims of premarital pregnancies. There is an assumption that youths in the church don’t suffer the same way psychologically like those youths who are not in the church. This study therefore sought to investigate whether the female youths who have fallen prey to premarital pregnancies in AIC church also suffer from postnatal depression. Objective: To investigate the level of depression among AIC youths aged 13-24 involved in premarital pregnancies in Wamunyu DCC Methods: Purposive sampling was used to recruit female youths aged between 13-24 years in AIC churches within Wamunyu DCC. Those recruited had been victims of premarital pregnancies. After recruitment, Beck’s Depression Inventory was used to assess their level of depression. Besides this, a socio-demographic questionnaire was also used to gather relevant data for this study. Results: The study found out that the youths who were victims of premarital pregnancies suffered moderate levels of depression (20.38 ± (12.62SD)). This affected their mental health adversely besides stagnating their spiritual welfare. Conclusion: Female youth in the AIC church and who have been victims of premarital pregnancy suffer from postnatal depression. The church should therefore re- invent ways of helping such youth to return to normalcy and continue gaining from the spiritual nourishment.