Comparison of Personality Characteristics and Anxiety in Pregnant Women Based on Choosing the Type of Delivery

Some of the psychological and personality characteristics are very influential in human beings’ selection and decision-making. These psychological characteristics can be also related to chosing the type of delivery. So, the present study aimed to compare personality characteristics (Neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) and anxiety (overt and covert) in pregnant women according to the type of delivery (natural or cesarean) inTarom city.

In the present descriptive and causal-comparative study, 90 pregnant women who had referred to health centers in Tarom city in 2015 were selected. Cluster sampling was used to select two centers of the city, and then from among pregnant women who had referred to these two centers, 90 were randomly selected. Participants responded to Personality Inventory Questionnaire (NEO-FFI) and Speilberger State – Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). To analyze the data, descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) were used.

The results showed that pregnant women’s preferances for the two types of delivery (normal and caesarean section) were significantly different in overt anxiety and personality traits, such as neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness (p

The results showed the importance of psychological issues in the preferred type of delivery and also suggest that to reduce the number of caesarean sections, anxiety and personality characteristics in pregnant women must be considered.