Pregnancy is associated with mood alterations, especially depression. Questions remain about differences in mood between pregnant women and nonpregnant women of childbearing age.
The purpose of this study-in-progress is to determine whether feelings of psychological distress and/or well-being differ among self-classified low and high-risk expectant women and nonpregnant women of childbearing age.
Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) Stress, Appraisal, and Coping theory guides this exploratory study using a nonexperimental, correlational, survey design. Following human subjects guidelines, data was collected from a convenience sample of 168 adult women from a women's health outpatient center. Tools included the Stewart, Ware, Sherbourne, and Wells’ (1991) Medical Outcomes Study Psychological Distress/Well-Being Battery, CES-Depression scale (Radloff, 1977), Risk Assessment Form (Gray, 2001) and a demographic form.
Data is currently being prepared for analysis using SPSS 11. Demographic variables will be summarized using appropriate descriptive statistics. Subtotals and Cronbach alphas will be calculated as required. Hypothesis testing is set for alpha=.05. One-way ANOVA with Tukey post hoc comparisons will examine differences among total subscale scores on the MOS with women categorized as either high-risk, low-risk, or nonpregnant. Additionally, group item response patterns for each item on the CES-D will be examined using one-way ANOVA with Tukey post hoc comparisons with women categorized as either high-risk, low-risk, or nonpregnant. Items with significant differences between groups will then be subjected to factor and/or discriminant function analysis to investigate group profiles.
Knowledge of typical differences in depression response patterns among women of childbearing age and those facing the additional challenges of low or high-risk pregnancy can assist nurses to make more rapid, targeted assessments during busy outpatient visits.
Session #1219 - Poster Session I
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)