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Biomedical subjects

L O Walker

Publications and source records attributed to L O Walker.

16 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1991

Well-being of mothers with infant children: a preliminary comparison of employed women and homemakers.

In general, research has demonstrated that employment has positive or neutral effects on women's mental and physical health. Stressors unique to full-time employed mothers of infants, however, may diminish their well-being. This study compared perceived stress levels and health-promotive lifestyles in a sample of full-time employed mothers and homemaking mothers. As expected, full-time employed mothers of infants reported greater perceived stress in their lives and less healthy lifestyles when they were compared with homemakers. The most frequently reported sources of stress for employed mothers of infants were conflicts or problems about returning to work. Findings support the hypothesis that full-time employed mothers of infants may adopt a pattern of self-neglect to cope with work overload.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Competence-building in adolescents, Part I: A self-help nursing intervention.

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of a self-help nursing intervention on adolescent psychosocial competence. A community sample of 139 adolescents was assigned to three conditions (intervention, delayed intervention, and control) within a pretest-posttest design. The self-help nursing intervention was a 9-page, 14-step self-help workbook for use by adolescents in dealing with upsetting situations in day-to-day living. After a self-assessment of coping, subsequent workbook steps aided adolescents in developing alternate coping responses and generating other ways to deal with the upsetting situation. Adolescents in the three conditions did not differ on pretest measures of psychosocial competence: problem-solving appraisal, adolescent self-perception, and general self-efficacy. After statistically controlling for pretest scores, gender, and age, the intervention group showed more favorable self-perceptions in scholastic competence, social acceptance, and conduct/morality compared with the control group. However, expected differences in the delayed intervention group failed to appear. Thus, anticipated benefits in psychosocial competence were found inconsistently. Although not predicted, significant reductions in the prevalence of negative affect occurred among adolescents in both intervention groups. Overall, the self-help format for delivering psychosocial competence training lacked the power needed to bring about consistent benefits for adolescents. Testing the self-help workbook in a group context is recommended in future nursing intervention research.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Competence-building in adolescents, Part II: Community intervention for survivors of peer suicide.

Nurses often encounter situations in which they are called upon to assist in post-suicide community interventions with teachers, church youth group leaders, and mental health professionals. Controlled studies of interventions to aid adolescents coping with the loss of a peer are lacking. The purpose of this study, conditioned by an unanticipated suicide in an ongoing research study, was to document changes in psychosocial competence of adolescent peer suicide survivors. Following a supportive community intervention, the peer survivor group was compared with a similar group of adolescents who did not experience peer suicide. Both groups were in the control condition of a larger nursing study of social competence-building. The survivor group had significantly greater self-efficacy immediately after the community intervention and 2 months later when contrasted with the comparison group. In addition, the survivor group reported greater social acceptance and job competence immediately after the community intervention. Correlated t-tests showed the survivor group had significant gains in problem-solving appraisal and global self-worth after the community intervention, but significant declines in global self-worth and scholastic competence 2 months after the intervention. The findings support the belief that community interventions are initially worthwhile in helping adolescents to cope with peer suicide, but continued supportive intervention may be needed to offset declines noted over time in areas such as self-worth and academics.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A longitudinal analysis of stress process among mothers of infants.

A model of stress process among mothers of infants was retested. In that model, stressors (work status or infant difficultness) influence maternal identity through perception of stress. Also, maternal identity may be buffered from stressor effects by health-promotive lifestyle. This model previously received partial support in a one-panel mail survey. The present study reports maternal outcomes from a 6-month follow-up of the original sample. One hundred nineteen (69%) mothers of infants aged 8-20 months participated in the follow-up study. Despite subject attrition, most findings from the original study were replicated in this study. As before, work status and perceived stress each contributed to predicting identity. Health-promotive lifestyle acted directly, not as a buffer, on maternal identity. When extraneous influences were controlled, neither perceived stress nor health-promotive lifestyle was significantly correlated across a 6-month period.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Stress process among mothers of infants: preliminary model testing.

Maternal employment, cesarean birth, and infant difficultness were used to test the mediating effect of perceived stress and the stress-buffering role of health practices on maternal identity. One hundred seventy-three mothers returned a parenting survey that focused on: stressors, perceived stress, health practices, maternal identity, and a demographic profile. Work status and infant difficultness were related to perceived stress. Neither had direct effects on maternal identity, but were related to it through the mediating effects of perceived stress. While health practices did not show buffering effects between stressors and perceived stress, these did contribute additively to the prediction of stress perception. Also, health practices contributed additively to the prediction of identity. Notable among the health practices predicting identity were self-actualizing expression, nutrition, interpersonal support, and stress management. These findings support a stress process model of parenting in which: (a) effects of stressors on maternal identity are mediated by perception of stress, and (b) health practices contribute positively and directly to maternal identity.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Maternal role attainment and identity in the postpartum period: stability and change.

Stability and change in maternal identity and maternal role attainment were examined in 64 medically normal, middle-class primiparous and 58 multiparous women. Using two semantic differential scales, "Myself as Mother" and "My Baby", for maternal identity and the Pharis (1978) Self-Confidence Scale for role attainment, subjects were tested at 1 to 3 days and 4 to 6 weeks postpartum. Main effects for parity and testing occasions were found for both semantic differential scales. While mothers' attitudes toward themselves became more positive over time, those toward their babies became less positive. Self-confidence showed main effects for both time of testing and parity as well as interaction effects. Although attitudes and self-confidence were stable across testing occasions, self-confidence was less related to indicators of maternal identity for multiparas than for primiparas. Sociodemographic variables demonstrated only low correlations with indicators of maternal identity and role attainment. Testing the relationship of maternal identity and role attainment to actual parenting behaviors is needed to determine the empirical and practical import of these two concepts in nursing practice.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Mothering behavior and maternal role attainment during the postpartum period.

Relationships among subjective and behavioral components of maternal role attainment were investigated separately for 64 primiparous and 60 multiparous mothers. The influence of contextual variables on maternal behavior was also examined. Subjects were medically low risk with normal infants. Attitudes toward themselves and their infants and feelings of self-confidence were measured at 1 to 2 days and 4 to 6 weeks after delivery. At 4 to 6 weeks mothers were also videotaped performing an infant feeding at home. Tapes were rated for maternal sensitivity and responsivity. For primiparas, self-confidence was related to maternal feeding behavior as were maternal age, education, and socioeconomic class. For multiparas, only initial attitude toward self was related to maternal behavior; however, maternal age and infant size were contextual factors related to behavior. Distinctions proposed among subjective and behavioral components are in part supported by the findings of the study.

Adult↗