115
Views
1
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Article

Ways of Coping with Stress during Pregnancy: Differences Revealed through Meta-Analysis

ORCID Icon, ORCID Icon & ORCID Icon
Pages 296-312 | Received 14 Mar 2023, Accepted 05 Jul 2023, Published online: 08 Aug 2023
 

Abstract

Substantial research demonstrates that high stress during pregnancy is a potent risk factor for adverse maternal, infant, and child outcomes. Strategies to cope with prenatal maternal stress have the potential to alleviate or exacerbate stress impacts. Yet we lack sufficient understanding of how frequently pregnant women use various ways of adaptive and maladaptive coping and whether coping practices differ by individual characteristics or by the circumstances of pregnancy. This meta-analysis evaluated 21 studies of commonly used instruments that assess coping with prenatal stressors: the Prenatal Coping Inventory (PCI; k = 6) and its successor, the Revised Prenatal Coping Inventory (NuPCI; k = 15). Across studies, pregnant women used adaptive coping strategies most frequently: [Planning-]Preparation and Spiritual-Positive coping. They used Avoidant coping least often. There were also differences in ways of coping by study trimester, racial and ethnic composition of samples, parity, and gravidity. Coping factors from the PCI and NuPCI exhibited good internal consistency in different countries and languages. Findings confirm that these instruments are reliable tools to assess prenatal coping and indicate that coping during pregnancy is influenced by individual and contextual factors. Understanding how women cope with prenatal stress can improve the ability of interventions to promote resilience.

Disclosure Statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 We use terms such as woman, mother, and maternal to refer to an individual who is capable of pregnancy and childbirth although we recognize that not all individuals use these terms.

Additional information

Funding

Emily Rehbein was supported by a Dr. W. Burghardt Turner Fellowship and the Department of Education’s Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) Fellowship.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 89.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.