THE IMPACT OF A NEWBORN INFANT UPON FAMILY ROUTINES AS PERCEIVED BY MULTIPARAS AND THEIR REPORTED USAGE OF COPING STRATEGIES IN THE EARLY POSTPARTUM.
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1988
Number of pages: 189
Subjects: Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The impact of a newborn upon family routines in households with young children was the focus of this study. The intent was to plot changes in adherence to family routines and to identify multiparas' selections of coping strategies used in dealing with family routines in early postpartum.

Design of the study was descriptive and longitudinal. The Family Routines Inventory (FRI) measured adherence to the habitual activities of family members. Multiparas' usage of coping strategies was determined with the Jalowiec Coping Scale (JCS). Questionnaires #1, #2, and #3 gathered data from the mothers concerning their frustration levels, perceptions of infant temperament, and the ability to change the situations in their homes.

The subject group was comprised of 40 multiparas who were Caucasian and married. They were tested three times: late pregnancy, 1 week after hospital discharge with their babies, and at 1 month postpartum.

Six hypotheses were tested using repeated measures ANOVA, paired t-tests, and Pearson's correlation. The first hypothesis predicted significant differences in adherence to family routines between the testing periods. Findings supported the hypothesis, revealing a decrease at 1 week postpartum with a reverse in the trend by 1 month. It was predicted as well that the multiparas would perceive their family routines situations as less amenable to change at 1 week than at 4 weeks postpartum and that they would choose more emotion-focused coping strategies at 1 week than at 4 weeks. Findings did not support these projections. No significant relationships between multiparas' perceptions of changeable/nonchangeable family routines situations and the choices of emotion and problem-focused coping strategies were demonstrated. Neither was any relationship between levels of adherence to family routines and selections of problem or emotion-focused coping demonstrated. It was discovered that multiparas perceived their levels of frustration, their infants' temperaments, and ease of managing their infants more negatively at 1 month postpartum than at 1 week.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-08, Section: A, page: 2411.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1988.

School code: 0227.