Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Health Education and Promotion

Advisor

Shelley Summers-Karn

Abstract

Pregnant women who experience high levels of stress and who lack support are at higher risk for negative birth outcomes for themselves and their offspring including preterm labor, low birthweights, and a myriad of other short- and long-term health and behavioral consequences across the lifespan of the child. Unmarried or socioeconomically disadvantaged women lack the most common resources used to protect against the negative effects of stress during pregnancy. A research gap existed regarding the specific types of psychosocial support perceived by low-income unmarried women to be most beneficial at buffering their perceived prenatal stress. The ecological model and the stress buffering theory provided the framework for the study. The purpose of this qualitative,narrative study was to explore which types of psychosocial support are preferred by low-income unmarried women to buffer against stress during pregnancy. Women were interviewed in focus groups and individually, and social media posts were examined. Inductive narrative analysis was used to extract three overarching themes. Study findings indicate that lack of support from the baby’s father coupled with barriers to health education correlate with an insufficient means to buffer stress during pregnancy for low-income unmarried women living in Iowa. This research has the potential to create social change by providing data that can guide the development of health education programs, interventions, and materials, which may decrease prenatal stress through buffering, improve birth outcomes, and decrease the risk for unintentional harm caused by uninformed prenatal interventions.

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