PREGNANCY DECISION-MAKING - PREDICTORS OF EARLY STRESS AND ADJUSTMENT

Pregnancy decision making was examined among pregnant and non-pregnant women seeking pregnancy testing. The majority of women had decided up on and were certain of a decision to either abort or carry a possible pregnancy before learning the pregnancy-test results. Adjustment to pr egnancy decision making was examined longitudinally among the women wh o tested positive for pregnancy. Pregnant participants were interviewe d about their decisions to carry or abort their pregnancies at three t imes-immediately prior to pregnancy testing, a day after receiving pos itive test results, and 4 weeks later. Nearly all maintained their ori ginal decision over the course of the study. Adjustment was related pr imarily to which outcome was chosen and, to a lesser degree, to whethe r a woman was initially decided or not upon the outcome. The time surr ounding pregnancy testing was stressful for women who decided to abort their pregnancies. However, negative feelings at the time of pregnanc y testing among those who later aborted their pregnancies subsided by the end of the study and did not differ from those who carried their p regnancies.