A Study on the Relationship between Social Support, Health Promoting Behaviors and Depression among Unmarried Pregnant Women / 여성건강간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to examine the level of social support, health promoting behaviors and depression among unmarried pregnant women and to identify the relationship between social support, health promoting behaviors and depression. METHOD: A descriptive correlational study was conducted. The participants were 102 unmarried pregnant women receiving shelter services from four facilities in two metropolitan cities. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA and Pearson correlation were used for data analysis. RESULTS: The level of social support and health promoting behaviors were relatively lower and the level of depression was relatively higher than those of married pregnant women. The participants received especially low social support from their unmarried partner. There was a positive relationship between social support and health promoting behaviors. Moreover, there were negative relationships between social support and depression and between health promoting behaviors and depression. CONCLUSIONS: To promote physical and emotional health of unmarried pregnant women, more attention is necessary to increase their social support. A nursing intervention program to increase social support among unmarried pregnant women in needed.

A Study on the Relationship between Health Perception, Prenatal Care Behaviors and Health Promoting Behaviors in Unmarried Pregnant Women / 여성건강간호학회지

PURPOSE: This study was to examine the relationship between health perception, prenatal care behaviors and health promoting behaviors of unmarried pregnant women. METHOD: The subjects were 97 unmarried pregnant women. The data was collected through personal interviews using a questionnaire. Adjusted instruments were the health perception scale developed by Ware, prenatal care behavior scale developed by Lee, and health promoting behavior scale developed by Pender. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and the Pearson correlation coefficient with SPSS program. RESULT: The mean score of health perception was 3.3, and Resistance-Susceptibility was the highest. The mean score of prenatal care behaviors was 2.9, while that of health promoting behaviors was 2.5. The relationship between health perception and prenatal care behaviors was significant(r=0.268, p=.008). The relationship between prenatal care behaviors and health promoting behaviors was also significant (r=0.633, p=.000). CONCLUSION: The higher the health perception of unmarried pregnant women, the more they are concerned about good prenatal care behaviors. Unmarried pregnant women did well on health promoting behaviors when they had are high degree of good prenatal care behaviors. Therefore, in order to promote positive health perceptions of unmarried pregnant women, it is necessary to develop and adjust various education and supporting programs.