Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH-HEIDELBERG, cilt.26, sa.6, ss.709-716, 2018 (ESCI)
AimThe purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between pregnant women's parenthood self-efficacy and their prenatal adaptations in a middle-income country by using a descriptive correlational research method.Objectives and methodsThe subjects of the study comprised 220 women in the last trimester of their pregnancy. Each woman had one or more children aged between 1 and 3years and received health care from one of the ten community health centres in Turkey where this study took place. The researcher did not use sampling because the purpose of the study was to include the entire population of pregnant women from these community health centres. Eventually, 212 of the 220 women participated in the study and the researcher reached 95% of the population. The data were collected from the participants when they visited the community health centres between 25 July 2014 and 1 December 2014. The data analysis used correlation and regression analysis.ResultsThe study showed that the participants had medium-level prenatal adaptation and parenthood self-efficacy. In addition, there was a statistically significant relationship between prenatal adaptation and parenthood self-efficacy. At the same time, participants' demographic characteristics also influenced their prenatal adaptation and parenthood self-efficacy scores.Conclusions(1) This study found that increasing the parenthood self-efficacy levels of pregnant women improves their adaptation to the prenatal period. (2) The participants displayed a medium level of prenatal adaptation and parenting self-efficacy. (3) The demographic characteristics of the participants affected their prenatal adaptation and self-efficacy levels for parenting tasks. In addition to improving the prenatal adjustment by increasing the parenting self-efficacy of pregnant women, the government should arrange programmes that will enhance their parenting self-efficacy.