INFLUENCE OF PARTNER RELATIONSHIP AND SOCIAL SUPPORTS ON THE PRENATAL HEALTH BEHAVIORS OF LOW-INCOME WOMEN.
Contributors: University of Minnesota.
Published: 1993
Number of pages: 172
Subjects: Health Sciences, Public Health.; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Disparity in the level of adequacy of prenatal care continues to exist for low-income and ethnically diverse women. Although providing financial access to prenatal care is an important policy strategy, women's resources and perceptions about their pregnancies are also likely to influence their decisions to obtain prenatal care. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of partner relationship and social supports on the adequacy of prenatal care and prenatal health behaviors of low-income women.

Consistent with family stress theory, the event of pregnancy, the resources available to women, and their perceptions of pregnancy determine women's responses to pregnancy. The study's independent variables included support from partner and others, a resource for women during their pregnancies, and boundary ambiguity in the partner relationship, sense of mastery, and desire for pregnancy as perceptual variables. The dependent variables were adequacy of prenatal care and prenatal health behaviors. The latter was measured by substance use behaviors, eating patterns, and prenatal education activities. The sample included 101 low-income, ethnically diverse women, ages 18 through 35 without major pregnancy complications, who obtained prenatal care in five metropolitan clinics.

Results indicated that partner support correlated positively with women's adequacy of prenatal care, while social support from others correlated positively with their prenatal health behaviors. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed partner psychological presence to be the most important predictor of adequacy of prenatal care. Boundary ambiguity, which is the incongruence between the partner's physical and psychological presence, negatively influenced women's use of prenatal care when women perceived their partners to be physically present, but psychologically absent.

Because adequate prenatal care aims to improve birth outcomes for low-income women and helps to reduce the costs of health care, it also promotes family and societal well-being. Practitioners and policymakers who are concerned about the well-being of families need to incorporate strategies that strengthen women's social support resources in decisions about the delivery of prenatal care services.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-10, Section: B, page: 5111.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, 1993.

School code: 0130.