Pregnancy-Specific Stress, Social Support, and Coping among Women of Advanced Maternal Age
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Abstract
Coping strategies among women with advanced maternal age are important for the health of pregnant women, their fetuses and their newborns. The purpose of this descriptive research was to investigate pregnancy-specific stress, social support, coping strategies and to explore the relationships between pregnancy-specific stress, social support, and coping among women of advanced maternal age, using the model of coping by Hamilton and Lobel as a framework. The coping strategies were categorized into three types: planning-preparation, spiritual-positive, and avoidance. The purposive sample consisted of 85 women of advanced maternal age who received services from the antenatal care department at Mahasarakham Hospital between June to October 2023. They were selected according to specific qualifications. The research instruments were: (1) a patient general information form; (2) the Revised Prenatal Coping Inventory form; (3) the Revised Prenatal Distress Questionnaire form; and (4) the Social Support of High-Risk Pregnant Women form. The reliability of the questionnaires was tested using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, yielding values of 0.88, 0.85 and 0.89, respectively. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation coefficient.
The results of the study showed that pregnancy-specific stress was at a low level (Mean = 11.52, SD = 4.60), social support was at a high level (Mean = 139.16, SD = 10.01), and coping strategies with 3 models were as follows: coping by planning-preparation was at a high level (Mean = 49.60, SD = 5.26, 77.50%), coping by spiritual-positive was at a high level (Mean = 27.95, SD = 4.33, 63.52%), and coping by avoidance was at a low level (Mean = 6.54, SD = 4.56, 27.56%). The findings indicated that pregnancy-specific stress had a low positive correlation with both planning-preparation coping (r = .270, p < .05) and spiritual-positive coping (r = .241, p < .05). However, social support was not significantly correlated with any of the coping strategies.
This study indicates that appropriate coping strategies for women of advanced maternal age involves promoting low levels of pregnancy-specific stress. Nurses should therefore pay attention to managing the levels of pregnancy-specific stress, in order to plan appropriate coping strategies for women of advanced maternal age.
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