Maternal marital status predicts self‐reported stress among pregnant women following hurricane Florence

Abstract

ObjectivesThe effects of stress caused by natural disasters may be more pronounced in individuals with preexisting disadvantages. The degree of hardship and psychological distress associated with Hurricane Florence was assessed in 83 pregnant women. This research helps identify unmarried pregnant women as a group particularly at risk of distress following a natural disaster.MethodsWe assessed hardship associated with the hurricane using a questionnaire modeled on previous studies of stress due to natural disasters. We assessed distress using the Impact of Event Scale‐Revised. We assessed social support and household food security using validated questionnaires. We used hierarchical linear regression to test predictors of distress marital status. Finally, we analyzed interactions between marital status and hardship, social support, and food security to examine whether these variables explained differences in distress among married and unmarried women.ResultsResults indicated that unmarried women may be at higher risk of distress following natural disasters. Unmarried women were younger, had lower food security and education levels. We found no differences between experiences of hurricane‐related hardship based on marital status. However, unmarried women were likely to have higher levels of distress following the hurricane. Hardship was a significant predictor of distress, but food security and social support were not significant predictors.ConclusionsThis study identifies unmarried pregnant women as a high risk/vulnerable group that may need additional support during emergencies. Taken together, this study further assesses how socially disadvantaged members of society may be unequally impacted by natural disasters.

Individual Differences in Experiencing Occupational Stress—A Case Study on Nurses of Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH)

“…Oth-ers disagree and believe that there is a significant association between stress and marital status, thus the marital status of an individual can be a source of stress due to the responsibility and pressure on an individual (Nyamwata et al, 2017). Married workers are more stressed than unmarried workers (Ghafoor et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2015;APA, 2010) and Huda reports that, married nurses have a 74.6% of work related stress (WRS), Yet another school of thought is of the view that, single or unmarried workers are more stress than the married (Howells et al, 2020) and unmarried nurses are at higher risk of heart diseases and cancer (Siddiqui et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2020;Fuente et al, 2018a) even a category of singles (windowed or divorced) have a significantly higher stress level than the married due to emotional distress (Young . This is because married men tend to have a friend to aid in stress relief and women tend to have a provider to aid in relief (Kohen & Kaplan, 2016).…”

Interactive Analysis of Demographic Variables and Occupational Stress on University Lecturers’ Job Performance

“…An examination of the literature revealed that various studies had connected workers' marital status to workrelated stress (Ghafoor, Chaudhry, & Khan, 2020;Howells et al, 2020;Olatunji & Mokuolu, 2014;Ta, Gesselman, Perry, Fisher, & Garcia, 2017). Some studies have found a significant difference in the stress level experienced by lecturers resulting from their marital status (Akinmayowa & Kadiri, 2014;Olatunji & Mokuolu, 2014;Omoniyi & Ogunsanmi, 2012).…”

Maternal stress and hair cortisol among pregnant women following hurricane Florence

“…Studies from a larger subset of this sample showed that unmarried pregnant participants experienced greater distress due to Hurricane Florence (Howells et al, 2020 ). Again, this risk was not explained by sociodemographic covariates, social support, or food insecurity, but likely reflects intersecting risk factors that together result in increased vulnerability before, during, and after the event.…”

“…Our goal was to recruit a diverse sample that would allow for analyses of sociodemographic variations in risk. Our previous results (Howells et al, 2020) highlighted that marital status was an important predictor of risk of distress due to the disaster. Although married and unmarried participants experienced similar levels of hardship due to the disaster, unmarried participants had higher levels of distress that were not explained by pre-existing vulnerability characteristics such as lower levels of formal education, greater food insecurity, or lower social support.…”

“…We assessed maternal sociodemographic characteristics, including age, number of children, education, race/ethnicity, and marital status (with single never married, living with partner, married, separated/divorced, widowed). Based on analyses of group characteristics (Howells et al, 2020 ), we used a dichotomous grouping of “unmarried” (single never married, separated/divorced, and living together with a partner) and “married” in analyses. Pregnancy characteristics such as due date were also assessed via questionnaire.…”