Primiparas’ Maternal Self-efficacy And Its Effect On The Anemia Of Their Infants

Objective 1 To investigate primiparas’ maternal self-efficacy status, postnatal depression status, partenting stress, level of social support. 2 To analyze the effects of general demographic information, postpartum depression, partenting stress and social support on primiparas’ maternal self-efficacy. 3 To explore the association between primiparas’ maternal self-efficacy and anemia of infants aged 6~12 months. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in the research. A total of 160 infants aged 6~12 months and primiparas were recruited from October 2013 to September 2014 in Child Health Department of Wangdingdi community hospital in Tianjin city by convenience sampling. Questionnaires of the self-designed general information scale, Self-efficacy in Infant Care Scale, Parenting Stress Index-Short Form and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale were used. SPSS 16.0 software was used to analyze the data. Univariate analysis, correlation analysis and multiple stepwise regression analysis were used to analyze the influencing factors of primiparas’ maternal self-efficacy. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the relationship between infants’ anemia and primiparas’ maternal self-efficacy. Results 1 We sent out 165 questionnaires, recycling 160 valid questionnaires with 97.00% efficiency. The mean age of the 160 primiparas and infants were 29.13±3.49 years and 7.65±2.45 months, respectively. 20.62% of the infants suffered from anemia, and 93.94% anemic subjects the anemia was mild. 2 Internet / television(71.25%) was the main source of parenting knowledge in primiparas, the others were family / friends(66.25%), books / magazines(52.50%), medical workers(35.00%). Antenatal education courses(83.78%) were the main source of parenting courses, the others were “mother classes” opened by otherorganizations or companies(29.73%), postpartum education courses opened by hospitals(24.32%). 3 The average scores of primiparas’ maternal self-efficacy and its four dimensions including developmental promotion, general health care, safety and diet were 84.86±9.46, 76.34±12.06, 90.07±7.96, 86.23±8.28; respectively. 4 The univariate analysis and correlation analysis revealed that education level, working conditions, family income per month, whether to take part in lectures / skill training on parenting knowledge, parenting stress, postpartum depression and social support were significant variables for primiparas’ maternal self-efficacy. 5 Multiple stepwise regression analysis showed that education level, postpartum depression, appraisal support, material support and informational support were the influencing factors of primiparas’ maternal self-efficacy; education level, postpartum depression, parent-child dysfunctional interaction and working conditions were the influencing factors of developmental promotion; education level, appraisal support, informational support, material support and postpartum depression were the influencing factors of general health care; postpartum depression, parental distress, appraisal support and material support were the influencing factors of safety; education level, postpartum depression, family income per month and parent-child dysfunctional interaction were the influencing factors of diet. 6 Lower scores of primiparas’ maternal self-efficacy and its four dimensions were observed among anemia infants(P<0.05). Primiparas’ maternal self-efficacy was postively related with infants’ hemoglobin value(P<0.05). Conclusion 1 Primiparas’ maternal self-efficacy was above the middle level, but score of general health care was the lowest. Internet / television was the main source of parenting knowledge, the percentage of knowledge from medical workers was the lowest, which showed that medical workers needed to use diversity of health education. 2 Education level, working conditions, family income per month, postpartum depression, social support, parent-child dysfunctional interaction and parental distresswere the main factors influencing primiparas’ maternal self-efficacy. 3 Primiparas’ maternal self-efficacy was inversely related with the prevalence of infants’ anemia, which suggested that medical workers should take effective measures to improve the level of primiparas’ maternal self-efficacy and enhance parental quality so as to reduce the prevalence of infants’ anemia.