A survey on the effectiveness of stress management training with cognitive-behavioral group therapy approach on state/trait anxiety, pregnancy anxiety and mental health of primiparous women

Backgrund: Pregnancy is associated with physical and psychological changes in pregnant women. Thus, we evaluate the effectiveness of stress management training with cognitive-behavioral approach on psychological aspects of primiparous women including state/trait anxiety, pregnancy anxiety and mental health.

This research is a quasi-experimental study with pre and posttest. The convenience sampling included 30 primigravidae who obtained a standard deviation above the mean in mental health questionnaire and who enjoyed the demographic standard of the research. They were randomly divided into two groups as experimental and control (n=15). The experimental group was provided with stress management training 2 hours per day on a weekly basis, but the control group only had usual pregnancy cares. Then, they were again assessed by the mentioned questionnaires. The collected data were evaluated by multivariate covariance and were analyzed using SPSS software.

The findings indicated that stress management training with cognitive-behavioral approach had a significant effect on state/trait anxiety (p< 0.001), pregnancy anxiety (p< 0.003) and its aspects (concerns about child birth (p< 0.002, concerns about interpersonal emotions/relationships P< 0.02) as well as mental health (P< 0.015), but has no significant effect on the concerns about changes in body (p< 0.12) appearance.

Stress management training program is an appropriate approach for mental health promotion and distress reduction due to the anxiety of primigravidae in dealing with the pregnancy stresses.