Factors Associated with Prenatal Health Behaviors among Low-Income, Ethnic Minority Women

Guido G. Urizar (), Joshua Murillo and Karissa Miller
Additional contact information
Guido G. Urizar: Department of Psychology, California State University, 1250 Bellflower Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90840-0901, USA
Joshua Murillo: Department of Psychology, California State University, 1250 Bellflower Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90840-0901, USA
Karissa Miller: Department of Psychology, California State University, 1250 Bellflower Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90840-0901, USA

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 3, 1-13

Abstract: Less than one-third of pregnant women in the U.S. meet prenatal nutrition, exercise, and stress management health behavior guidelines. Low rates of these prenatal health behaviors have been especially observed among low-income, ethnic minority women, placing them and their infants at a disproportionally higher risk for health complications. Yet, few studies have identified factors associated with these prenatal health behaviors in this population. This study examined whether certain demographic (e.g., ethnicity) and psychosocial characteristics (i.e., coping, stress, pregnancy-specific stress, and depression) were associated with prenatal nutrition (i.e., high-fat food and fruit and vegetable intake), exercise, and stress management health behaviors in 100 low-income, pregnant women (39% African American, 30% foreign-born Latinas, 15% U.S.-born Latinas, 10% non-Hispanic white, and 6% Asian American/Pacific Islander) in southern California using an embedded, mixed-methods, cross-sectional design. Results demonstrated that ethnic minority women who experienced more stress and used more maladaptive coping strategies (e.g., avoidance) were particularly at risk of consuming more high-fat foods and engaging in less exercise and stress management during pregnancy. Qualitative responses revealed women’s experiences with these prenatal health behaviors. These findings highlight the need for interventions and collaborative care models that target psychosocial factors in order to optimize prenatal health behaviors and health outcomes among ethnic minority women.

Keywords: pregnancy; ethnic minority; health behaviors; coping; stress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/1695/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/1695/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:3:p:1695-:d:1038752

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().