Psychological adaptation and birth outcomes: The role of personal resources, stress, and sociocultural context in pregnancy

Prenatal psychosocial predictors of infant birth weight and length of gesta tion were investigated in a prospective study of 120 Hispanic and 110 White pregnant women. Hypotheses specifying that personal resources (mastery, se lf-esteem, optimism), prenatal stress (state and pregnancy anxiety), and so ciocultural factors (income, education, ethnicity) would have different eff ects on birth outcomes were tested using structural equation modeling. Resu lts confirmed that women with stronger resources had higher birth weight ba bies (beta = .21), whereas those reporting more stress had shorter gestatio ns (beta = -.20). Resources were also associated with lower stress (beta = -.67), being married, being White, having higher income and education, and giving birth for the first time. There was no evidence that resources buffe red the effects of stress. The importance of personal resources in pregnanc y is highlighted along with implications for understanding the etiology of adverse birth outcomes.