Improving birth outcomes requires understanding the dynamics between biological and psychosocial aspects of pregnancy. This study explores relationships between gestational weight gain (GWG) and birth weight (BW) and psychosocial thriving in late pregnancy manifested by health behaviors, depressive symptoms, and body image. Participants were 38 African American, 58 Hispanic, and 42 Anglo women who met these criteria: age 18 or older, term delivery, no medical risks, and Medicaid coverage for prenatal care. These criteria reduced extraneous effects of health status, age, length of gestation, and income. Mean age was 22.1 years (SD=3.5 yr). Within 1-2 days of delivery, women completed psychometrically sound measures of health behaviors (Self-Care Inventory, Food Habits Questionnaire), depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale), and body image (Body Cathexis Scale) related to the 9th month of pregnancy. GWG was self-reported and BW was abstracted from hospital records. Analyses showed there were no ethnic differences on psychosocial measures. The latter were not correlated significantly with GWG or BW in the overall sample; there was a trend (p=.084) for depressive symptoms to be correlated with lower BW. In regression analyses testing for interactions between ethnicity and psychosocial measures, however, African American ethnicity moderated the relationship (p < .05) between body image and GWG; Hispanic ethnicity moderated the relationship between food habits and GWG (p < .05). Thus, despite no ethnic differences in levels of psychosocial thriving in this low-income sample, ethnicity indirectly influenced (moderated) relationships between GWG and psychosocial thriving measures.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Ethnic Minorities, Health Behavior
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.