260363 Relationship between partner support and maternal personal resources during pregnancy: Findings from the 2007 Los Angeles Mommy and Baby (LAMB) study

Tuesday, October 30, 2012 : 2:30 PM - 2:50 PM

Rebekah Gee, MD, MPH, MSHPR , School of Public Health, Louisiana State University, New Orleans, LA
Fathima Wakeel, PhD, MPH , Department of Population Health Sciences, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Joseph Hagan, MSPH , School of Public Health, Louisiana State University, New Orleans, LA
     
OBJECTIVE: To examine the associations between paternal support and maternal personal resources during pregnancy in order to identify groups of mothers who would most benefit from targeted interventions and policies.

METHODS: This study uses data from the 2007 Los Angeles Mommy and Baby (LAMB) study, a mailed survey based on a multistage clustered design with telephone follow-up for non-respondents. Analyses were based on the weighted responses of 4,158 women with a live birth in Los Angeles county in 2007. Personal resources consisted of self-esteem and mastery during pregnancy and were dichotomized as either “higher” or “lower” levels. The six partner support items encompassed both instrumental and emotional support from the baby's father during pregnancy. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine the associations between partner support items and personal resources, controlling for maternal sociodemographic factors.

RESULTS: Unadjusted analyses showed that women who had higher scores on the partner support items were 1.5-2.7 times more likely to report higher personal resources (p<0.001). In the adjusted analyses, controlling for sociodemographic factors attenuated the associations between the partner wanting his name on the birth certificate and visiting the mother in the hospital after delivery with personal resources. Higher levels of personal resources were observed for older, wealthier, more educated, married, and Caucasian women.

CONCLUSIONS: Receiving greater partner support during pregnancy is significantly associated with maternal personal resources. Interventions to increase partner support are warranted in order to improve maternal personal resources, especially among vulnerable groups.

Learning Areas:
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
1) Evaluate the impact of partner support on maternal personal resources; 2) Identify characteristics of mothers at risk for low personal resources during pregnancy; 3) Discuss programmatic and policy implications of our findings.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the second author on this paper and have contributed substantially to the theoretical approach, operationalization of the variables, data analysis plan and interpretation of findings. I have worked with the Los Angeles Mommy and Baby (LAMB) study dataset since June 2007.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4325.0: Dads Matter: paternal involvement in maternal & child health