Psychosocial adjustment during pregnancy: the experience of mature gravidas.
OBJECTIVE
To determine if gravidas ages 35 years and older have greater conflict in adapting to pregnancy than do younger gravidas.


METHODS
Static group comparison.


METHODS
Prenatal care facilities and prenatal education classes.


METHODS
Sixty-four older gravidas (35 years and older) and 46 younger gravidas (32 years and younger) who were in their 3rd trimester of pregnancy.


METHODS
Lederman Prenatal Self-Evaluation Questionnaire II, which contains seven scales measuring conflict in psychosocial tasks during pregnancy.


RESULTS
Older gravidas had significantly less fear of helplessness and loss of control in labor than did younger gravidas. Age and education but not parity may account for this finding.


CONCLUSIONS
Age and education may balance the additional concerns older gravidas may have about pregnancy and allow older gravidas to adjust to pregnancy as well as younger women do.
Stark
M A
MA
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000523:psychology*; D017584:Reproductive History; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric