Stress, depression, anxiety and coping strategies in parous and nulliparous women

Abstract

Sufficient attention to mental health is often not encouraged, especially in women. The motherhood phase plays a crucial role when it comes to women’s mental health and coping strategies. This research is an attempt to study the level of anxiety, stress, depression and coping strategy in parous women (have children) and nulliparous women (do not have children). We examined and compared the attitudes of women in both the categories. This study is based on 120 subjects divided into two equal groups (60 Nulliparous and 60 Parous) selected through random maternity and IVF hospitals in Ahmedabad, Gujarat and from the surrounding environment. The level of anxiety, stress, and depression were measured by anxiety, depression, and stress scale (ADSS- 2008) developed by Pallavi Bhatnagar et al., and the level of coping strategies were measured by the Coping Checklist (CCL-1986) test developed by Rao. T-test and correlation were applied for data analysis. The results revealed that there was no significant difference found between two female groups in respect to stress, depression and anxiety. While, there was a significant positive correlation found in the coping strategies amongst nulliparous and parous women.