Adolescent marriage and motherhood in Turkey: A qualitative study exploring determinants, impacts and opinions about preventive strategies.

AIM: This study aimed to understand the determinants of child marriages, becoming a child mother, their impacts and opinions about preventive strategies. DESIGN: The phenomenological research approach was adopted with one-to-one semi-structured interviews between December 2017 and May 2018. METHODS: The population of the study consisted of 36 adolescent married mothers registered in the Family Health Centres. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and evaluated based on a thematic analysis was conducted. RESULTS: In the study, four main themes and 12 subthemes were determined. Adolescent marriages determinants occurred as patriarchal cultural norms, the perception that girls would be safe under the protection of another man, and poverty. Adolescent brides experienced partner violence and were subjected to physical, psychological and sexual violence in their marriage. Adolescent mothers had low maternal self-confidence, childcare challenges and were late to take on childcare responsibilities, and their children were neglected. As a result of early marriage, the participants experienced psychological problems and burnout later in their lives. Improving family-child communication, and eliminating financial inadequacies were among the opinions on prevention strategies of child marriages. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study identified the determinants and impact of adolescent marriages and revealed the problems experienced by adolescent brides and mothers. IMPACT: The most important contribution of this study is that it deals with the motherhood experiences. In addition, it is one of the important findings of this study that it draws attention to their neglected children's due to lack of knowledge and experience of their mothers about childcare.

The relationship between personality traits, menopausal symptoms, and marital adjustment.

This study was aimed at determining the relationship between personality traits, menopausal symptoms and marital adjustment in postmenopausal women. This cross-sectional study was conducted with 599 postmenopausal women who presented to the family health centers between September 2018 and February 2019. Data were collected with the Personal Information Form, Marital Adjustment Test, Cervantes Personality Scale and Menopause Rating Scale. The mean marital adjustment score of the postmenopausal women was 44.03 ± 10.75. The correlation analysis revealed significant negative correlations between marital adjustment, and personality traits and menopausal symptoms. Education level, economic status, duration of menopause, neurotic and inconsistent personality traits, somatic, psychological and urogenital symptoms were determined to be statistically significant predictive factors of marital adjustment in postmenopausal women.

Prenatal distress levels of pregnant women in Turkey and affecting factors: a multicentre study.

This study was conducted to determine prenatal distress levels of pregnant women from seven provinces of Turkey and factors affecting prenatal distress levels. The multicentre descriptive study included 2365 pregnant women who were in the twentieth gestational week and above. The data were collected using the pregnancy information form, prenatal distress questionnaire and spousal support scale. Descriptive statistics, Student's t-test, ANOVA and logistic regression were used to evaluate the data. The results of this study demonstrated that pregnant women's prenatal distress levels are affected by such factors as the region lived in, lack of spousal support and being a primary school graduate. Nurses should develop intervention strategies that involve the pregnant woman's spouse to reduce prenatal distress and the factors affecting prenatal distress.Impact statementWhat is already known on this subject? Prenatal distress can have significant effects on pregnancy, maternal health and human development across the lifespan.What the results of this study add? Spousal support could also have an effect on the psychological health of mothers.What the implications are of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Nurses and midwives monitor the pregnant women, and therefore, they should evaluate the prenatal distress levels in the prenatal period, plan intervention strategies for pregnant women with high stress levels and include the pregnant women's spouses in these intervention strategies.

Effects of music therapy and guided visual imagery on chemotherapy-induced anxiety and nausea-vomiting.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To reveal the effects of music therapy and visual imagery on chemotherapy-induced anxiety and nausea-vomiting. BACKGROUND: Behavioural techniques such as music therapy and visual imagery are becoming increasingly important in dealing with chemotherapy-induced anxiety, nausea and vomiting. DESIGN: The study is an experimental and cross-sectional one and performed on a single sample group with the pre-post-test design consisting of 40 individuals. The individuals in the sample group comprised both the control and the case group of the study. METHODS: To obtain the study data, the following forms were used: the Personal Information Form, Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, The Visual Analogue Scale and Individual Evaluation Form for Nausea and Vomiting adapted from The Morrow Assessment of Nausea and Vomiting. RESULTS: In the study, the participants' state and trait anxiety levels decreased significantly (p < 0·05). Music therapy and visual imagery reduced the severity and duration of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting significantly (p < 0·05). In our research, 40% of the patients did not have anticipatory nausea and 55% of the patients did not have anticipatory vomiting during the third chemotherapy cycle during which music therapy and guided visual imagery were implemented. CONCLUSIONS: It was determined that complementary approaches comprising music therapy and visual imagery had positive effects on chemotherapy-induced anxiety, nausea and vomiting, which are suffered too often and affect the patients' whole lives adversely. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This study is worthy of interest as it has revealed that music therapy and visual imagery which have been proven to be effective in many health problems in different areas are also important, and practical complementary approaches that are effective in getting chemotherapy-induced anxiety, nausea and vomiting under control.