Abstract

• This descriptive correlational research was conducted to compare the relationship between self-esteem, performance of antenatal care and health promotion lifestyles for unmarried and married pregnant women. The sample consisted of 94 married women attending one general hospital and residing in Seoul and 82 unmarried women from two social institutes for unmarried women. The tool used for this study was a structured questionnaire which was developed and revised by the researcher. The tool consisted of 12 items related to demographic characteristics, 10 items on self-esteem measurement, 20 items on performance of antenatal care and 37 items on health promotion lifestyle profile. The data collected from the interviews were analyzing using the SPSS, yielding frequencies, percentiles, means, standard deviations, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's Product Moment Correlation. The results of this study are as follows: 1) The demographic variables for the two groups were heterogenous except for religion. 2) The results of the comparison between the two groups were significantly different for self-esteem, married women(mean 20.41, standard deviation 3. 94) had higher scores on self-esteem than unmarried women(mean 24.02, standard deviation 4.11), (t=-5.91, p.001) 3) There was a stastically significant difference between the two groups on the health promotion lifestyle profile. The married women had higher scores on the health promotion lifestyle profile (t=7.22, p<.001) 4) The 3corc for married women on performance of antenatal care has higher than the score for unmarried women (t=8.83, p<.001) 5) With regard to the relationship between health promotion lifestyle and performance of antenatal care and self-esteem, the correlation coefficient between self-esteem and health promotion lifestyle for married women was .45, between performance of antenatal care and health promotion lifestyle, .54, between self-esteem and performance of antenatal care, .32. For the unmarried women, between self-esteem and health promotion lifestyle, .39, between performance of antenatal care and health promotion lifestyle, .67, between self-esteem and performance of antenatal care, .30. 6) There was a statistically significant different between the two groups on all subconcepts of the health promotion lifestyle profile (p<.001). 7) Comparison of the order of the scores between the two groups for the married women showed that the highest score was for nutrition, then self-actualization, interpersonal support, health responsibility, stress management and exercise in that order. For the unmarried women, the highest score was for self-actualization followed by nutrition, interpersonal support, stress management, health responsibility, and exercise in that order. The score in the exercise domain was lowest in both groups. In conclusion, on the basis of the results of this study, resources and protection facilities for unmarried pregnant women could be improved through government policies and health care policies that would allow unmarried women to utilize significant social support resources and actualize health promotion lifestyles. Nursing should offer interventions to increase psychosocial adjustment and support tp improve the quality of life for unmarried pregnant women and further to promote improved growth and development of the infants.

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