Effects of Stress, Social Support and Coping Style on Adjustment to Pregnancy among Hispanic Women

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Abstract
The effects of stress, social support, and coping styles on both prepartum anxiety and intrapartum processes (labor and delivery complications, intrapartum analgesia requirements) were explored in a study of a sample of Hispanic women. Stress, whether indexed in terms of life changes or the women's prepartum estimate of labor and delivery pain, was significantly related to prepartum anxiety More interesting was the manner in which stress, especially in interaction with prepartum use of medical personnel for information and reassurance, affected both prepartum anxiety and intrapartum analgesia requirements. The significance of these findings was tempered by the fact that the social support and coping style variables failed to consistently predict the intrapartum criterion variables. Further, many stress by social support or coping style interactions were nonsignificant. These failures were attributed to the fact that predictor variables did not bear a direct relationship with the subject's actual intrapartum behavior and emotions.