Abstract

• The purpose of this correlational study was to offer strategies for nursing intervention to improve compliance with prenatal care. This study was designed to investigate degree of hardiness, correlation between hardiness and com pliance with prenatal care. In research, the characteristic of hardiness has been demonstrated in resolving stressful situations and in adapting to overcome physical and psychological tension, pregnancy is normal crisis process. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate degree of hardiness in normal pregnant woman and I think that concept of hardiness is able to become a new, important concept for prenatal care imtervention. The subjects were 388 normal pregnant woman over five months, who were selected from five uni versity hospitals and two health centers in Taegu. Data were obtained using a convenience sample technique. Data collection was done from March 6 to June 18, 1992. The instruments used for this study were the Health Related Hardiness Scale developed by Pollock (1984) and compliance with a prenatal care scale developed by the author on the basis of results of a literature review. Data were analyzed using the SAS program for t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe test, Pearson correlation and stepwise multiple regression. The results are as follows: 1. The scores on the hardiness scale ranged from 35 to 210 with mean of 88.89. 2. The scores on the compliance with prenatal care scale ranged from 28 to 110 with a mean of 111.49. 3. There were significant differences between hardiness and obstetrical characteristic factors, duration of pregnancy, frequency of pregnancy, frequency of abortion ( P<=. 05). 4. There were significant differences between compliance with prenatal care and general and obstetircal characteristic factors, education and frequency of pregnancv(P<=.05). 5. Correlations between hardiness and compliance with prenatal care were all negative and significant <r=-.2276 ~ -.2930, P<=.000). Challenge of hardiness components was the low est(r=-.2814). 6. Significant differences between hardiness and compliance with prenatal care by group were as follows: Group 1 was the high est. whereas Group 8 was the lowest(F=5.47, P<=.0000). 7. Factors influencing compliance with prenatal care were: 1) Challenge was the main variable and accounted for 7.92% of the total variance. 2) Education and frequency of pregnancy accounted for an additional 2.74% of the total variance. From the above findings, this study suggests the following: 1) Considering the lack of empirical support, the theroy of hardiness needs to be evaluated. 2) A valid, reliable and culturally appropriate instrument needs to be developed for Health Related Hardiness Scale. 3) There is a need for further study of hardiness in a broad variety of populations. 4) There is a need for comparative study corre lation between hardiness and compliance with prenatal care in woman with normal and abnormal pregnancies.

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