PSYCHOPATHOLOGY, HEALTH PROMOTING & HEALTH IMPAIRING BEHAVIOR AMONG PREGNANT WOMEN

Abstract

The objective of the study was to determine how much age, income, education, health promoting and health impairing behavior correlates and predict the psychopathology (depression) among pregnant women. The sample was taken from the maternity units of the government, private hospitals and clinics of Faisalabad district. The sample of 432 pregnant women in 1st trimester was taken by purposive sampling technique. The demographics were age, income, education of pregnant women. Prenatal Health Behavior Scale (PHBS) was used to measure the health promoting and health impairing behavior and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was used to measure the psychopathology. The findings revealed that age and health impairing behavior positively predicted depression (β = .19, p < .001), (β = .48, p < .001) respectively while income, education and health promoting behavior negatively predicted depression (β = -.09, p < .01), (β = -.08, p < .05), (β = -.31, p < .001) respectively. The ∆R2 value of .38 revealed that 38% change in the variance of model 1 and model 2 with ∆F (2,426) =189.48, p < .001.The findings revealed that age, income, education, health promoting behavior and health impairing behavior are significantly associated and predictors of depression. Keywords: Pregnancy, Psychopathology, Health promoting behavior, Health impairing behavior