Abstract:
Tasks of pregnancy are important tasks for an adolescent pregnant woman
to accomplish prior to attaining the maternal role. Factors influencing developmental
tasks of pregnancy are personal factors and situational factors. This descriptive
research aimed to study the effect of personal factors, self-concept, and spouse
support on developmental tasks of late adolescent pregnant women. May and
Mahlmeister’s concept of developmental tasks of pregnancy was used as a conceptual
framework of the study. The purposive sample consisted of 95 late adolescent
pregnant women who attended prenatal clinics at 17th Somdejphrasankharaj Hospital,
Chouphrayayomaraj Hospital, and Uthong Hospital, Suphanburi, Thailand, during
March to April, 2008. The instruments used in this study were the Demographic Data
Questionnaire, the Self-concept Scale, the Spouse Support Questionnaire, and the
Developmental Tasks of Pregnancy Questionnaire. The data were analyzed by using
descriptive statistics, Pearson's product moment correlation, and Stepwise multiple
regression.
Results of the study indicated that late adolescent pregnant women could
accomplish developmental tasks of pregnancy well. Plan of pregnancy, self-concept,
and spouse support were positively related to developmental tasks of pregnancy at the
significant level of 0.01 (r = 0.29, 0.66, and 0.81 respectively). Moreover, spouse
support and self-concept were the factors that could jointly predict developmental
tasks of pregnancy and could explain 73.6 percent of the variance of developmental
tasks of pregnancy in late adolescent pregnant women at the significant level of 0.001.
Based on findings of this study, nurses as health care providers should
assess developmental tasks of pregnancy in late adolescent pregnant women, and
include the spouses of adolescent pregnant women in the plan of care.