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Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to identify three psychosocial factors influencing adverse newborn outcomes for low income women.
Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to state the two predictors of newborn complications for low income women.
A convenience sample of women (n=111) 18 through 35 years of age, Medicaid eligible, between 14 and 22 weeks of pregnancy, medically healthy, and fluent in English, were utilized for this prospective correlational study. Self report questionnaire to measure attachments, social support, life stress, anxiety, and psychological well-being were administered individually between 14 and 22 weeks, and between 32 and 42 weeks of pregnancy. The hospital records were reviewed to determine negative pregnancy outcomes. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, correlational analysis, multiple regression, paired t-tests, and discriminate analysis.
Discriminate analysis was performed to assess the relative contribution of prenatal attachment, trait anxiety, psychological well-being, emotional support, bad life events and the interaction of bad life events with emotional support at Time 1 to predict newborn complications. These Time 1 measures significantly classified the Newborn complications in this study (Wilks' Lambda=.792 Chi-square=17.09 df=7 p=.017). The most important discriminating factors were negative life events and the interaction of emotional support with negative life events. Discriminate analysis was performed to assess the relative contribution of the psychosocial factors at Time 1 to predict pregnancy complications. These Time 1 measures significantly classified the complications of pregnancy in this study (Wilks' Lambda=.816 Chi-square=14.77 df=7 p=.039). The most important discriminating factors were state anxiety and total functional social supports.
The identification of significant predictors of adverse newborn outcomes of pregnancy for the socially high risk low income pregnant women provides important information for the development of future healthcare interventions and innovative health promotion strategies to reduce life stress and strengthen attachment relationships and support systems for women during pregnancy.
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