Maternal Anxiety Levels and Coping Patterns Among Primiparas When the Neonate is Ill at Birth

Abstract

The birth of an ill infant creates special concerns which may increase a new mothers's anxiety ,and ability to cope with the situation. Therefore, the purpose o~ this study was to d.etermine if there was a difference in maternal anxiety levels and coping behaviors of first-time mothers in ill infants when compared to first-time mothers of well infants. Twenty mothers (Group I, mothers of ~11 infants [n=10]; Group II, mothers of well infants (n=lO]) qompleted McCubbin et al.'s (1983) Coping Health Inventory fo~ Parents (CHIP) and Spielberger et al.'s (1970) State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). ~-Tests were used to analyze the difference between the groups' mean scores from the two questionnaires. Chisquare tests were used to test for differences in observed frequencies between the two groups. Spearman's rho correlations were used to determine if there were any relationships between maternal anxiety levels and maternal coping patterns between the two groups. Results indicated that mothers of i+l neonates had significantly higher state and trait anxiety scores. Mothers of ill neonates were also found to use·more coping patterns than mothers of weil neonates. There was a significant relationship between coping behaviors and anxiety levels of mothers with ill neonates. Implications based on the re.sults .indicated that nurses need to gain knowledge in regard to .how anxiety affects coping behaviors of pr~gnant moth~r$. Nurses need to be able to recognize·and identify when first~time mothers are using ineffective coping behaviors to deal with their anxieties. Efforts to minimize ineffective coping can be recognized and nursing interventions adapted to assist the mother to learn about her strengths and weaknesses and developing better coping skills.