Table 7.

Conceptual framework of maternal depression, stress and context—inference to best explanation

Criteria	Application
Hill’s aspects of association
Strength	Final models integrate strong associations of financial stress, lack of support, lost expectations and findings related to migrant mothers
Consistency	Final models consistent with earlier models and analysis
Specificity	No specificity identified
Temporality	No temporality demonstrated in this study
Biological gradient	Gradients were demonstrated in individual and ecological studies
Plausibility	The associations described are plausible
Coherence	The association is coherent with what is know
Experimental evidence	No experimental evidence was identified
Analogy	There are analogies between the propositions here and The Stress Process Model
Thagard’s Principles
Symmetry	There is symmetry in the final models depression
Explanation	The propositions (a) coheres with evidence on depression, (b) coheres with other propositions and (c) are not a single proposition.
Analogy	There are analogies between the propositions here and The Stress Process Model
Data priority	The propositions describe the QUANT and QUAL data observations.
Contradiction	There are no contradictory proposals
Competition	No competitive explanation identified where p and q were not explanatorily connected
Acceptance	The propositions are coherent with the overall system of propositions
Thagard’s Criteria
Consilience	The propositions explain a significant range of known facts
Simplicity	The propositions are the most simple set of explanations
Analogy	There are analogies between the propositions here and The Stress Process Model