Social Support, Life Stress, and Anxiety as Predictors of Pregnancy Complications in Low-Income Women

Prospective repeated measures were used to examine attachment, social support, life stress, anxiety, and psychological wellbeing among low-income women in early and late Pregnancy and the relationships of these variables to prenatal, intrapartum, and neonatal complications. One hundred and eleven medically healthy, low-income, Medicaid-eligible women ages 18-35 years, between 14 and 22 weeks of pregnancy were recruited from prenatal clinics. Self-report questionnaires and hospital records were used to collect data. Discriminant analysis was performed. The most important discriminating factors for prenatal complications were state anxiety and total functional social support. The factors for neonatal complications were negative life events and the interaction of emotional support with negative life events. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health 32:391-404, 2009