RESOURCE LOSS, RESOURCE GAIN, AND COMMUNAL COPING DURING PREGNANCY AMONG WOMEN WITH MULTIPLE ROLES

We investigated stress, coping, and employment status in 92, mostly Eu ropean American pregnant women. Conservation of Resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1988, 1989) was applied as a specification of role-quality theory to examine the stressful influences of women's multiple roles. Women's resource loss predicted psychological distress better than eit her their resource gains or their employment status (i.e., multiple ve rsus single roles). Full-time employed women were significantly more d istressed under high loss conditions than were part-time or nonemploye d women. Examining women's coping strategies based on a communal model of coping, we found that active, prosocial coping was associated with better emotional outcomes. A significant interaction was found for th e effects of loss x cautious action such that loss was related to grea ter depression, but only among women who did not employ cautious actio n.