Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Sep 15;17(18):6709.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17186709.

Pregnancy-Related Anxiety, Perceived Parental Self-Efficacy and the Influence of Parity and Age

Robyn Brunton  1 , Nicole Simpson  1 , Rachel Dryer  2
Affiliations

Pregnancy-Related Anxiety, Perceived Parental Self-Efficacy and the Influence of Parity and Age

Robyn Brunton et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Pregnancy-related anxiety is contextualised by pregnancy and is a health concern for the mother and child. Perceived parental self-efficacy is associated with this anxiety and age and parity are identified as influential factors. This research, therefore, predicted that negative perceptions of parental self-efficacy would predict greater pregnancy-related anxiety, moderated by parity and age. Participants (N = 771) were recruited online and assessed for perceived parental self-efficacy, pregnancy-related anxiety, and demographics. Moderation models showed that the psychosocial and sociodemographic factors combined predicted up to 49% of the variance. Parental self-efficacy predicted anxiety in the areas of body image, worry about themselves, baby concerns, pregnancy acceptance, attitudes towards medical staff and childbirth, and avoidance. Parity predicted pregnancy-related anxiety both overall and in childbirth concerns, worry about self, baby concerns and attitudes towards childbirth. Age predicted baby concerns. There was a significant moderation effect for pregnancy acceptance indicating that primiparous women with low perceptions of parental self-efficacy are less accepting of their pregnancy. Results suggest that parity and parental self-efficacy may be risk factors for first-time mothers for pregnancy-related anxiety.

Keywords: fear of childbirth; maternal attitudes; parental expectations; parity; pregnancy-related anxiety; prenatal attachment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Moderation model.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Acceptance of pregnancy, moderation effects. The dashed line represents multiparous women and the solid line represents primiparous women.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Spinelli M.G. Interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed antepartum women: A pilot study. Am. J. Psychiatry. 1997;154:1028–1030. - PubMed
    1. Lee A.M., Lam S.K., Lau S.M.S.M., Chong C.S.Y., Chui H.W., Fong D.Y.T. Prevalence, course, and risk factors for antenatal anxiety and depression. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 2007;110:1102–1112. doi: 10.1097/01.AOG.0000287065.59491.70. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Dunkel-Schetter C., Tanner L. Anxiety, depression and stress in pregnancy: Implications for mothers, children, research and practice. Curr. Opin. Psychiatry. 2012;25:141–148. doi: 10.1097/YCO.0b013e3283503680. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bayrampour H., Ali E., McNeil D.A., Benzies K., MacQueen G., Tough S. Pregnancy-related anxiety: A concept analysis. Int. J. Nurs. Stud. 2015;55:115–130. doi: 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2015.10.023. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Madhavanprabhakaran G., D’Souza M.S., Nairy K.S. Prevalence of pregnancy anxiety and associated factors. Int. J. Afr. Nurs. Sci. 2015;3:1–7. doi: 10.1016/j.ijans.2015.06.002. - DOI