Study of Coping-competence among Unmarried Pregnant Young Women in Three Big Cites in China

ObjectiveTo identify the coping-competence among unmarried pregnant young women.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in the setting of clinics-based. A total of 1 391 unmarried young women were recruited as the sample in Youth Clinics of 3 maternal care hospitals in Beijing, Jinan, and Guangzhou respectively in China. “Behavioral Attributes of Psychosocial Competence Scale-Condensed Form” was administered to identify the coping-competence of these women. All these women were aged 10– 24 years old and were divided into three groups based on whether or not they had sex and pregnancy. The three groups were named as follows: pregnancy group with young women having had both sex and pregnancy, sex group with young women having had only sex but not pregnancy, and non-sex group with young women having no sex experience.ResultsAmong the adolescents aged 10–19 years old, the coping-competence was different among the three groups (P=0.050). Compared with the pregnancy group, the non-sex group were more inclined to active coping (P=0.026). Among all the pregnant women aged 10–24 years old, the coping-competence was various by region (P<0.001): the women in Jinan were more inclined to active coping than the women in another two cites (P=0.009, P<0.001), and there was no difference between the women from Beijing and Guangzhou (P=0.324).ConclusionThis is the first study of coping among unmarried pregnant young women in China. The results supported the point of view that the pregnant adolescents were more inclined to passive coping, and the coping had regional differences.