Self-esteem and associated factors of teenagers with first pregnancy.

Abstract

Problem/background : Teen pregnancies should be able to feel good about themselves and their fetus, as teen pregnancies with high self-esteem trend to be mentally strong and stable enough to acknowledge and accept the incident that they actually have to face, i.e., physical, mental, emotional and social adjustments accordingly. Researchers are, therefore, interested to study this topic in order to develop guidelines for promotion self- esteem in teenage pregnancies.

Objective : To study the self-esteem of teenage pregnancies and to identify factors associated with it.

Design : Cross-sectional survey research.

Setting : Ubon Ratchathani Province

Materials and Methods : Two hundred and sixty-eight subjects were recruited and multistage random sampling method of teen pregnancy was applied. They attended the health promotion district hospitals, Ubon Ratcathani Province. Data were collected by questionnaires developed by the researchers. The edition of self-esteem test has the reliability as follows; self-esteem 0.99, self-care 0.73, and social support 0.97, respectively. The data were analyzed as percentage, mean, standard deviation, maximum, minimum, Chi-square test and Pearson ‘s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient.

Results : The study found that personal factors; the most aged 17 years and older is 26.9% and the lowest aged 13 years is 10.4%. The most of subjects were employed 41.4%, and gestational age at first antenatal care that was less than 12 weeks was 49.3%. The self-esteem is the most moderate 70.9%, followed by low and high 16.0% and 13.1% respectively. The statistical tests showed as follows: gestational age at first prenatal care was statistically significant associated with self-esteem (p <0.05); age was statistically significantly negatively related to self- esteem (r = - 0.137), self-care (r = 0.128 ), self-care for mental health (r = 0.167), and social support with material possessions (r = 0.194) were positively statistically significantly related to self- esteem (p <0.05). The level of education, marital status, occupation, family income, and the overall social support had no statistical correlation with self- esteem (p> 0.05).

Conclusions : The environment at the antenatal care units should improve to enhance self- esteem of first time teenage pregnancy by helping to develop a method to maintain self-esteem.