Pregnant women’s loneliness: Correlated factors and its impacts on maternal role identification and common complaints during pregnancy

Abstract

Purpose To identify pregnant women's loneliness and its correlated factors such as demographic data and social relationships, and to explore those impacts on maternal role identification and common physical complaints during pregnancy. The definition of loneliness in this study was: the subjective and negative feeling of the experience that social needs are unmet or unsatisfied, in quantity, quality, or both. Methods A self-administered questionnaire survey including the revised UCLA loneliness scale (scores range from 20-80 points with higher points indicating higher loneliness), quantity of social support and its satisfaction, the Violence Against Women's Screen (DV score), maternal role identification and common physical complaints during pregnancy was distributed to 1,675 pregnant women after the 34th week of gestation in 5 perinatal care facility between July and October 2015. A total of 1,310 questionnaires (78.2% effective response rate) were statistically analyzed. Results The revised UCLA loneliness scale mean score of all pregnant women was 33.1. The highest mean score in pregnant women was 42.3 in those who were suspected of having fetal abnormality. Loneliness was more prevalent in those who were single (mean score=38.8), and having only a junior high-school education (mean score=37.0). Multiple regression analysis indicated the loneliness score was higher in pregnant women with lower satisfaction with their social support (β=−.331), lower quantities of social support (β=−.161), lower annual household income with 6 million yen as a reference category (3 million yen to 6 million yen: β=.104, less than 3 million yen: β=.141), past history of mental disorder (β=.111), and higher score on DV (β=.069) (adjusted R2 =.21). A higher loneliness score was associated with the lower score of identification with the maternal role (β=−.428, p=.000). The loneliness score was not associated with frequency of common complaints during pregnancy. Conclusion High loneliness was identified in pregnant women who were suspected of having a fetal abnormality or who were social vulnerable. To find highly lonely pregnant women early, it is important to assess their social support, economic situation and DV along with mental health. Continuous and individual midwifery care for them is required to support their process of becoming a mother.