An investigation of stress, self-efficacy, and social support as predictors of smoking status for postpartum women

摘要

The basis for the present research stems from concerns for women who smoke after they deliver their infants. This becomes especially relevant when behaviors that affect the woman's health and the health of her infant are jeopardized. Based on the tenets of Bandura's social-cognitive theory, factors associated with cigarette smoking for this population emerge. Self-efficacy theory, a major component of social-cognitive behavior, supports the contention that self-efficacy is a major component to self-regulation of one's behavior and applicable to smoking cessation for women in the postpartum period. For this study, a cognitive-behavioral model of smoking status was developed in order to examine the role of self-efficacy in the smoking process. Stress and social support, known to be associated with levels of self-efficacy, have been included in the model to understand their relationship to postpartum women and smoking status. Data for this analysis was obtained from a follow-up study of 103 of the 385 eligible women who were one year or more postpartum and who were previously enrolled in a randomized clinical trial known as the Perinatal Education Program (PEP, N = 469). As proposed by the model, results indicate remote from delivery time (12 months or more postpartum), self-efficacy is a mediating factor in the stress smoking relationship. However, social support was not found to moderate self-efficacy and the smoking relationship. As a whole, when comparing women who currently smoke and women who quit or never smoke, higher stress, lower number of supportive individuals, and a partner who smokes were significantly related to a woman's increased likelihood to be a smoker.