RELATIONSHIPS AMONG NUCLEAR FAMILY AND FAMILY OF ORIGIN VARIABLES AND PRENATAL PSYCHOSOCIAL RISK AND NEWBORN AND MATRNAL WELL-BEING.
Contributors: University of Minnesota.
Published: 1995
Number of pages: 250
Subjects: Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Description: This study investigated the relationships among prenatal psychosocial risk and newborn and maternal well-being and pregnant women's perceptions of adaptability, cohesion and solidarity in both the nuclear family and family of origin. A convenience sample of 104 young adult women in their third trimester of pregnancy was interviewed for prenatal psychosocial risk using the Clinical Judgment of Prenatal Psychosocial Risk. Subjects were administered two family questionnaires containing the adaptability and cohesion scales of FACES III and a measure of solidarity. One questionnaire related to the nuclear family and used Spanier's Dyadic Adjustment Scale to measure solidarity. The other questionnaire related to the family of origin and contained a new measure of solidarity, the Family Solidarity Inventory. Newborn weight, gestational age, Apgar scores, and physiological parameters of maternal condition at birth were retrieved from hospital medical records.

Correlation and regression analysis revealed significant relationships between perceptions of family-of-origin cohesion and solidarity and prenatal psychosocial risk and infant birth weight. Perceptions of nuclear-family cohesion were significantly associated with gestational age. No family variables were significantly associated with Apgar scores or maternal well-being. Although the generalizability of the present findings are limited, the results suggest the need for more attention in health practice and family research to ongoing family-of-origin influences during adulthood.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-03, Section: A, page: 1144.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, 1995.

School code: 0130.