title: Men's health status during pregnancy and early fatherhood.
abstract: The findings in this study of 147 men agreed with earlier research that health status declines over the first 8 months of fatherhood. The study extends previous work in that causes of this decline were tested. Empirical respecified models predicting health perception during pregnancy, early postpartum 1, 4, and 8 months were able to predict from 20 to 60% of the variance. These models were substantively more powerful than the hypothesized theoretical model that was tested, which explained from 12 to 38% of the variance. At all time periods there was a link between negative life events and a direct or indirect predictor of health perception. Other variables that consistently entered the models with either direct or indirect links were self-esteem, mastery, and either depression or anxiety. The empirical respecified models showed moderate to strong predictive power and provide a base for future model testing and subsequent intervention studies.
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, University of Arizona.
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Ferketich
authors.forename: R T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Mercer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis; D005220:Fathers / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006262:Health; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis