CAUSAL MODELING OF PRENATAL HEALTH BEHAVIORS BASED ON SOCIAL CAPITAL AND COGNITIVE ATTENTIONAL SYNDROME WITH THE MEDIATION OF MENTAL FATIGUE PERCEPTION IN PREGNANT WOMEN

The health of pregnant women is of particular importance. Therefore, the present research was conducted to causal modeling of prenatal health behaviors based on social capital and cognitive-attentional syndrome with the mediation of mental fatigue perception in pregnant women.

The research method was descriptive and based on structural equations. The study population included all pregnant women referred to health centers in Tehran in the fall of 2022. Two hundred and ten participants were selected by the convenience sampling method and participated in the study. The data were collected using Lobel et al.'s Pregnancy Health Behavior Scale (1995), Wells' Cognitive-Attention Syndrome Scale (2009), Enix and Bullen's Social Capital Questionnaire (2000), and Smets' Mental Fatigue Questionnaire (1996). The inclusion criteria included willingness to participate in the study, the age range of 18-45 years, having 6th grade or higher, not having any previous psychiatric history and especially mood disorders, and having a history of problematic childbirth and abortion. Exclusion criteria included any distortion of the questionnaires. Data were analyzed using SPSS 23 and Amos 18 software. The analysis of data was conducted using correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling.

The results showed that the causal model of the relationship between social capital, attentional cognitive syndrome, perception of mental fatigue, and pregnancy health behaviors was confirmed based on various fit indices.  In addition, social capital and cognitive syndrome indirectly affected pregnancy health behaviors in pregnant women through the perception of mental fatigue

Social capital and cognitive problems play important roles in health care in pregnant women, and targeting these two components in psychological treatments can effectively reduce health problems.