The relationship between psychosocial health status and social support of pregnant women

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between psychosocial health status and social support, which has important effects on pregnancy, and to determine the factors related to both psychosocial health and social support.

Method

The research was planned to be a descriptive study. The sample of the study consisted of 393 pregnant women. ‘Personal Information Form’, ‘Pregnancy Psychosocial Health Assessment Scale (PPHAS)’, and ‘Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS)’ were used to collect data, and Student’s t-test, ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD tests were used for the data analysis. The relationship between the two continuous variables was evaluated according to the Pearson correlation coefficient.

Results

Psychosocial health conditions and perceived social supports of pregnant women whose spouses were working were determined to be significantly higher (p < .05), and at a lower level (p < .05) in pregnant women with two or more children. As MSPSS total mean scores of the pregnant women increased, their PPHAS total mean scores were weakly affected in the positive direction (r = 0.393, p < .01).

Conclusions

It is recommended that health care needs of pregnant women should be evaluated not only in terms of physical health but also together with their psychosocial health and social supports. Furthermore, this assessment should be done in their own home environment with their spouses and other family members.

Keywords:

• Pregnant women
• psychosocial health
• social support
• nursing

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Current knowledge on the subject

• Psychosocial health and social support are affected by socioeconomic factors.

• Psychosocial health problems (stress, depression, anxiety, etc.) are more common in pregnant women who are pregnant with their first baby will be mothers for the first time.

• Psychosocial health problems in pregnancy have a negative correlation with social support.

What this study adds

• Psychosocial health and social support during pregnancy were found to be affected by the employment status of the spouses as well.

• Psychosocial health and social support during pregnancy was found to be affected by the number of children.

• A weak positive relationship was found between psychosocial health and social support during pregnancy.