Supplementary Manual.Maternal Pregnancy Interview Stress Theme Coding Manual

THEMES

NTLE: Non-traumatic life events (Cohen, Kessler & Gordon, 1997)

  • Discrete and observable events that require an adjustment in identity or life routines, not considered routine daily hassles
  • Examples: job loss, moving, marital difficulties or separation, chronic but not life-threatening illness of family member

TLE: Traumatic/severe life events (Khashan et al., 2008)

  • Actual or threatened death or serious injury
  • Threat to physical integrity of self or others
  • Loss or diagnosis with cancer, acute myocardial infarction, or cerebrovascular accident of a close relative
  • Examples: death of loved one, house burned down

MSLE: Medical self life event

  • Illness of gravida (coded separately from other life events to prevent confounding influences of illness & stress)

RDH: Routine daily hassles (Serido et al., 2004)

  • Distinguished from non-traumatic life events
  • Relatively minor events arising out of day-to-day living
  • Small, unexpected events that disrupt daily life
  • Examples: “bills;” “kids bother me;” “

PS: Perceived stress (Cohen, Kamarck & Memelstein, 1983)

  • Any reported appraisals of situations in one’s life as stressful
  • Upset, unable to control things, ability to cope/handle problems, thinking of things that need to be accomplished, control use of time, difficulties piling up, unable to overcome things
  • Examples: “hate that we’re not married”

RD: Reported depression (Radloff, 1977)

  • Sad, depressed, down, hopeless, worthless, thoughts of suicide, etc.

RA: Reported anxiety (Speilberger, 1983)

  • Worried, anxious, nervous, jittery, etc.

PR: Perceived racism (Dominguez et al., 2008)

PFP: Positive feelings about pregnancy

  • “happy/very happy [about pregnancy];” “thrilled [about pregnancy]”

AFP: Ambivalent feelings about pregnancy

  • Examples: “mixed feelings;” “feel so-so about it;” “feel okay, but not enthused”

NFP: Negative feelings about pregnancy (includes unwanted pregnancy)

  • Examples: “not happy [about pregnancy];” “did not want to be pregnant;” “do not want anymore [children]”

AOP: Ailments of pregnancy

  • Physical conditions related to pregnancy
  • Examples: morning sickness, nausea, vomiting, indigestion, intestinal discomfort, physical discomfort secondary to pregnancy weight-gain

NAPA: Negative Affect about Pregnancy Ailments

  • Anxiety/depression/stress related to pregnancy-related conditions
  • Example: “I hate to get so big, I feel so awkward”; “My weight, that’s on my mind more than anything else, and I know how hard it is to keep weight down, and lose after each pregnancy”

PSA: Pregnancy-specific anxiety (Rini et al., 1999)

CODING GUIDELINES:

1)Code eachspecific mention of relevant emotions/feelings.

2)Use perceived stress scale (PSS; (Cohen, Kamarck & Memelstein, 1983) to distinguish stress from anxiety.

3)Do not code statements/observations made by the interviewer about gravida.

4)No code for lack of worries/annoyances or general happiness unrelated to feelings about the pregnancy.

5)If keywords is the question are underlined/circled and the question is answered affirmatively, then code the stress theme associated with the keyword.

6)Merely answering the worry question is not enough to code worry—answer to the question must include an explicit or implicit appraisal of worry.