Health may be compromised by social interactions depending on culture among postpartum Arab and Jewish Israeli women

Table 2 Social support, negative interactions and perceptions of customs among Jewish and Arab women, one month after childbirth (Mean, Standard Deviation, Man-Whitney Test)

Variable		Jews (N = 202)		Arabs (N = 203)		p
Variable		M^a	SD	M^a	SD
Social support	General positive support	4.27	0.73	3.79	0.87	< 0.001
	Emotional support	4.53	0.64	4.46	0.72	0.67
	Instrumental support	4.15	0.72	3.53	0.92	< 0.001
Sources of social support	Partner	4.57	0.71	3.95	0.99	< 0.001
	Woman’s family	4.32	0.91	4.22	0.83	0.09
	Husband ‘s family	2.74	0.61	2.62	0.93	0.29
	Friends	2.66	0.69	2.54	0.92	0.14
	Neighbors	2.30	0.87	2.15	0.90	0.12
Negative interactions	Average	1.47	0.74	1.82	0.85	< 0.001
Subscale of negative interactions	Conflict	1.68	1.03	1.99	1.09	< 0.001
	Insensitivity	1.36	0.68	1.74	0.88	< 0.001
	interference	1.24	0.54	1.59	0.70	< 0.001
Source of negative interactions	Partner	1.43	1.14	1.49	1.04	0.047
	Woman’s family	1.35	0.96	1.38	0.87	0.105
	Husband ‘s family	1.92	1.31	2.34	1.33	< 0.001
	Friends	1.13	0.59	1.15	0.55	0.159
	Neighbors	1.12	0.57	1.14	0.52	0.167
Perception of customs and traditions		4.34	0.54	3.13	0.83	< 0.001

Note. Differences between Arab and Jewish women were measured using the Man-Whitney Test
^aRange 1–5

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