THE EFFECT OF STRESS AND COPING RESOURCES ON PARENTAL ADAPTATION SUBSEQUENT TO THE BIRTH OF A PRETERM INFANT.

Description

A secondary analysis of data from a longitudinal survey of 125 mothers and fathers of preterm infants was undertaken to test a conceptual model regarding: (a) the direct effects of stress (perinatal status, developmental status and concurrent life events) on family functioning and marital satisfaction; (b) the direct effects of family functioning and marital satisfaction on the level of adaptation (emotional well-being and symptom frequency); and (c) the buffering effects of social support on the level of adaptation. Family functioning, marital satisfaction and social support were regarded as coping resources which intervene in the relationship between stress and the level of adaptation. Specifically, family functioning and marital satisfaction were considered as mediators and social support was considered as a moderator. Their relative importance was tested simultaneously using path analysis. The data which were collected when the infants were 3 and 18 months old indicated that: (1) 18 months after the birth of the preterm infant, the stress specific to concurrent life events decreased the mothers' marital satisfaction, while stress specific to the perinatal condition of the preterm infant decreased the fathers' perception of family cohesion; (2) 3 months after the birth of the preterm infant, only family functioning for the mothers and marital satisfaction for the fathers increased emotional well-being. Eighteen months after the birth of the preterm infant, both family functioning and marital satisfaction increased the mothers' emotional well-being. Among the subcomponents of family functioning, only family cohesion increased emotional well-being. For the fathers, marital satisfaction continued to increase emotional well-being at the 18-month interview; and (3) three months after the birth of the preterm infant, the total amount of support increased symptom frequency for the fathers. Eighteen months after the birth of the preterm infant, the total amount of support increased the mothers' emotional well-being by buffering overall stress, while the total amount of support directly decreased the fathers' emotional well-being. The total amount of social support increased the mothers' emotional well-being the most followed by family functioning. Examining the subcomponents of support (emotional, instrumental, appraisal and adequacy) in matching with specific stress, some supports were helpful but others were not. Overall, symptom frequency as a dependent variable had inconsistent and a few significant relationships with the other study variables. Given these findings, the mothers and fathers used different coping resources at the 3- and 18-month interviews. The mothers used more expanded and diverse coping resources at the 18-month interview than at the 3-month interview. In contrast, the fathers' coping resource (marital satisfaction) remained almost the same at both measurement occasions.

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