A literature review revealed 15 variables as commonly studied as associated with adolescent pregnancy. The research showed conflicting results in many of these areas. Twenty-one pregnant and 20 non-pregnant adolescents were tested using the Arlin Test of Formal Reasoning (ATFR) and the Reiss's Premarital Sexual Permissiveness Scale. Pregnant participants were expected to score lower than non-pregnant participants on the ATFR; and, the low permissives (based on responses to the Reiss's Premarital Sexual Permissiveness Scale) were expected to score higher than high permissives on the ATFR. However, the results did not support the hypotheses. Several areas were examined for exploratory purposes. There was a significant difference between high permissives and low permissives for parent/peer orientation for sexual behavior attitudes. Additional exploratory demographic information was collected using a General Information Questionnaire.

There is a growing body of research aimed at understanding social support during pregnancy in South Africa. Pregnancy is constantly referred to as one of the challenging and stressful periods affecting women’s physical and psychological well-being. Various research studies on social support argue that social support is paramount at this stage. Research on social support indicates that having adequate and quality social support impacts on how pregnant women experience pregnancy. My interest in social support comes in the wake of absent fathers in South Africa and with the emerging trend of “new” fathers. Although there is a volume of research on social support, it tends to be realist. Using a social constructionist framework, I explore other ways of talking about social support in an attempt to expand the discourse around social support. I explore how pregnant women talk about social support during pregnancy from their intimate partners in the small rural municipality of Elundini, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Intimate partner support was limited to heterosexual partners regardless of their marital status. The sampling procedure followed a non-probability sampling method. Participants of the study were between 24 and 32 years old. Their gestational age ranged between five and eight months. Fourteen in-depth interviews using photo-elicitation were conducted with seven participants and were analysed using a social constructionist informed thematic analysis. The major theme that emerged from the analysis was partner involvement and absence during pregnancy. The analysis of results suggests that expectant father presence translates to social support. Participants constructed his presence as reassurance in the context of possible abandonment. Absence was constructed in different ways: participants constructed absence as unjust and unfair, absence and marriage, temporary absence in the form of cultural phenomenon of ukwaliswa/ukubukubazana, absence as normal but burdening to the pregnant women’s social network. Participants reported that social support from the expectant father affected pregnancy wantedness.

A study was conducted to investigate the claim made by proponents of the natural childbirth method that attendance in the program results in a decrease of the anxiety commonly associated with pregnancy and delivery. Seventy-two pregnant women filled out the A-State and A-Trait forms of the STAI twice in their obstetricians' offices at points which approximated 6.5 and 8.5 months along in their pregnancies. Subjects who elected not to attend natural childbirth classes evidenced significantly higher state and trait scores as compared to those scores of subjects who did attend classes. Implications for dealing with these differences are discussed in terms of the natural childbirth program.

Discriminant function analysis was performed on data from 87 female volunteers who were between the ages of 21 and 53 years old and who had been married at least one time. Sixty-two of the subjects had no history of premarital pregnancy; 18 subjects had been pregnant when they married; and seven subjects had an induced abortion before marriage. All groups were discriminated (p < .05) by the variables of marital adjustment, lack of emotional vulnerability, masculinity, chance locus of control, powerful others locus of control, and number of marriages. Women with a history of premarital pregnancy were less satisfied with their present or most recent marriage and tended to have had more marriages; they also were higher on belief in chance, lower on belief in powerful others, lower on instrumentality and more lacking in emotional vulnerability than were women without history of premarital pregnancy. The two groups with history of premarital pregnancy were discriminated (p < .05) by marital adjustment and lack of emotional vulnerability. Women who married when pregnant were less satisfied with their present or most recent marriage and were more emotionally vulnerable than were women who had abortions prior to marriage.

The purpose of this descriptive study was to assess the thoughts, feelings, and actions of pregnant teens at significant decision-making times: time of intercourse, confirmation of pregnancy, and six weeks post delivery. Factors associated with adolescent pregnancy and patterns of behavior were analyzed. Examination of the extant literature on adolescent pregnancy yielded insight into parental, socio-economic, and partner factors. The interview protocol emanated from the literature analysis. The interaction of these factors on the thoughts, feelings, and actions of female teens was the focus of the study. Data from personal recurrent interviews of pregnant teens over a four-month period served as the basis for analyzing thoughts, feelings, and actions. Analysis of individual and group thoughts, feelings, and actions generated behavior patterns relevant to each of the three decision-making times. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this research was to measure attitudinal differences between pregnant and nonpregnant teenagers. The sample was comprised of 192 junior and senior high school students. The pregnant group consisted of 87 teenagers enrolled in a Continuing Education Program for pregnant teens. The non-pregnant group was enrolled in a regular junior and senior high school. Comparisons were made of motivations for parenthood, romantic love attitudes and perception of need satisfaction. Analysis of Variance, one-way classification, was used to test the significance of the differences between the means of the two groups for each of the three variables. Pearson product moment correlation coefficients were computed to determine the degree in relationship among variables. / Ph. D.

An animal model (Rattus norvegicus) was employed to study the effects of chronic prenatal alcohol exposure on pup development and on the functional efficacy of pup vocalizations on the maternal behavior of the dam. Subjects were 72 dams and their litters. Dams were matched by weight and assigned to either an Ethanol (EtOH), a Pair-fed (PF), or an Untreated Control (UC) group. Ethanol dams received 15% ethanol as their sole source of fluid throughout the experiment. Pair-fed dams were fed isocalorically to EtOH dams. Untreated Control dams received food and water ad libitum. Dam's retrieval behavior was assessed in a runway choice situation when pups were 3, 5, 7, and 9 days old. Developmental measures were taken on pups from ages 0 through 13 days. Blood ethanol concentrations were also analyzed for dams and pups. The data showed that the BEC of EtOH dams was .1% and that EtOH pups showed a negligible BEC postpartum. Prenatal alcohol exposure was shown to have a direct pharmacological and indirect nutritional effect on pup development. Ethanol dams retrieved a reliably smaller percentage of pups and retrieved reliably more slowly than did controls. Pair-fed pups showed a higher rate of calling than did other pups and tended to be chosen more often by UC and PF dams than were EtOH or UC pups. Ethanol dams tended to chose UC pups more often than other pups. These findings suggest that chronic prenatal alcohol exposure produces altered behavior and responsiveness in the dam and the pup. This altered behavior and responsiveness may have a synergistic effect on the interaction between the dam and the pup. / Master of Science

The relationships between stress, ascorbic acid status, and the adequacy of nutrient intake during the third trimester of pregnancy were studied. Adequacy of nutrient and ascorbic acid intake were measured by diet histories and 24 hour recalls. Plasma ascorbic acid and cortisol levels were determined. Stress was assessed by Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventories (STAI) and Symptom Checklists (SCL). Factors which may affect stress were assessed by a General Background Information Questionnaire. All subjects had acceptable plasma ascorbic acid levels (0.48 - 1.64). A-State and A-Trait scores, X̄ = 1.55 and X̄ = 1.63 respectively, indicated the majority of subjects to be little stressed. There were positive significant correlations between age and cortisol, A-State and A-Trait measures of STAI, nutritional scores from diet histories and plasma cortisol. Significant negative correlations were obtained between month of pregnancy and plasma ascorbic acid levels, total ascorbic acid intake and A-State measurements of STAI, A-State measurements and income, A-State measurements and education, and A-State measurements and ascorbic intake as calculated from diet histories. There was no significant correlations between STAI, measurements and cortisol, plasma ascorbic acid and cortisol, and STAI measurements and plasma ascorbic acid. This study showed no conclusive evidence that ascorbic acid status or nutrient intake were affected by psychological stress. / Master of Science

This study questioned if women who held unrealistic positive expectations concerning the postpartum period, prenatally, would experience more depression and less positive affect than women whose prenatal expectations were more realistic in relation to their postpartum experience. The 135 married women who participated in a LaMaze class completed a questionnaire at approximately seven months prenatal concerning their expectations about the postpartum period (6-8 weeks after delivery), as well as the Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Affect Balance Scale (ABS). The expectations questionnaire was re-administered 6-10 weeks after delivery to compare expectations to actual experience. The BDI and ABS were also readministered at this time to provide a change score between prenatal and postpartum depression and affect. Positive expectations that proved to be unrealistic were compared with the BDI and ABS change scores. A high discrepancy between positive expectations and postpartum experience was not significantly correlated with depression on the BDI. However, unrealistic positive expectations were significantly correlated with decreased positive affect, postpartum, on the ABS. Three out of the four positive affect subscales of the ABS were significantly affected by unrealistic positive expectations. That is, prenatal unrealistic positive expectations affected these new mothers' positive emotions of vigor, contentment and joy, rather than their negative affect or depression. A prenatal self report index of child care information also correlated significantly with the discrepancy between expectations and postpartum experience. Participants with less child care information had more unrealistic expectations about the postpartum period. / Master of Science

Although current professional and public opinion support the right of the client to make an informed decision about entering and continuing in a psychotherapy or counseling relationship, research studying the effects of informed consent on client behaviors and attitudes in the medical, research, and mental health fields has resulted in equivocal findings. This study looked at the effects of an informed consent procedure on client behaviors and attitudes in a pro-life pregnancy counseling center where the center's primary goal is to reduce the number of abortion decisions among clients. Thirty of the center's clients (Experimental Group) were given an Informed Consent Sheet that explicitly stated the center's policies, procedures, and goals while another 30 clients {Control Group) were exposed to the center's regular procedures which did not include this Informed Consent Sheet. Results of subsequently administered questionnaires showed that there were no differences between groups regarding their stated intention to abort a potential pregnancy, nor were there any differences between groups on their attitudes toward their counselors and their counseling experience, in general.