Social Problem Solving and Psychological Distress among Pregnant Women

Abstract

Animal and human studies have provided evidence that psychological distress during pregnancy may adversely affect the physical and psychological health of the child and mother. Given this evidence, it is important to learn about the ways in which women cope with stressors during pregnancy. Social problem-solving is the cognitive-behavioral process whereby an individual copes with stressful problems. As such, the purpose of this study was to determine if social problem-solving statistically predicted psychological distress (i.e., depressive and anxious symptomatology) during pregnancy. It was hypothesized that social problem-solving would statistically predict psychological distress above and beyond demographic variables, stressful life events, and pregnancy related-stressors. Additionally, it was believed that negative problem orientation would be the most predictive. Pregnant women (n = 31; 58.1% white, 16.1% black, 12.9% Latina, 9.7% Asian, and 3.2% other/multiracial; mean age = 30.43 years, SD = 4.99; mean gestational age = 30.23 weeks, SD = 9.18) seeking prenatal care from two university-based obstetric and gynecologic offices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania were recruited to fill out a series of self-report questionnaires, including the LES, PES, EPDS, PRAQ-R, and SPSI-R. Hierarchical multiple regressions demonstrated that social problem-solving did not statistically predict psychological distress among pregnant women (depression: R2 = 0.47, F(5, 25) = 1.41, p = .25; anxiety: R2 = 0.22, F(5, 24) = 0.58, p = .72). Additional research is needed to determine if social problem-solving predicts psychological distress among pregnant women. Keywords: pregnancy, anxiety, depression, psychological distress, social problem solving%%%%M.S., Psychology – Drexel University, 2013