Psychosocial Assets, Life Crisis and the Prognosis of Pregnancy12

Nuckolls, K. B. (Yale University School of Nursing, New Haven, Conn. 06510), J. Cassel and B. H. Kaplan. Psychological assets, life crisis and the prognosis of pregnancy. Am J Epidemiol 95: 431–441, 1972.—This is a study of the relationships between psychosocial assets, social stresses as measured by a cumulative life change score and the prognosis of pregnancy. Psychosocial assets were measured early in pregnancy by a questionnaire (TAPPS) designed to assess the adaptive potential for pregnancy. At 32 weeks, subjects completed the Schedule of Recent Experience from which scores were calculated for life change during pregnancy and for the two years preceding it. Following delivery, the medical record was used to score each pregnancy as “normal” or “complicated.” Complete data were obtained on 170 subjects. Taken alone, neither life change nor TAPPS scores were significantly related to complications. However, when these variables were considered conjointly, it was found that if the life change score was high both before and during pregnancy, women with high TAPPS scores (favorable psychosocial assets) had only one third the complication rate of women with low TAPPS scores. In the absence of high cumulative life change, there was no significant relationship between psychosocial assets and complications.