Anxiety levels and methods of coping with stress of adolescents undergoing their first gynecological examination

Abstract

Objective: The present study was conducted to assess the anxiety levels and the methods of coping with the stress of adolescents who underwent their first gynecological examination.

Methods: The sample of this descriptive study consisted of 223 married or single adolescent women who went to a state hospital in Sivas Province in Turkey for their first gynecological examination. The data were collected by face-to-face interviews with the Personal Information Form, the State Anxiety Inventory (SAI) and the Ways of Coping Inventory (WCI).

Results: There was a statistically significant negative correlation between the SAI scores, and the self-confident approach (r = −0.305; p = 0.001) and optimistic approach (r = −0.170; p = 0.011) of the WCI subscales. A statistically significant positive correlation was found between SAI scores, and the desperate approach (r = 0.153; p = 0.022) and submissive approach (r = 0.143; p = 0.032).

Conclusion: Adolescent women who underwent their first gynecological examination have “moderate” levels of anxiety and their coping with stress styles are ineffective. As anxiety levels increase, they use more ineffective methods.

Keywords:

• Adolescent
• anxiety
• coping with stress
• gynecological examination
• women

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.