INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-EFFICACY AND LIFE SATISFACTION IN PREGNANT WOMEN: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY IN AMOL, IRAN IN 2021

Self-efficacy, which means people's trust in their abilities and capabilities in critical situations, can be related to life satisfaction, and it is one of the components related to people's health and happiness. This study aimed to determine the relationship between self-efficacy and life satisfaction in pregnant women.

This descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out in 2021 on 135 pregnant women who were selected randomly. The data collection tool included a checklist of personal-social characteristics of the expectant mother, gestational age, number of pregnancies, and sex of the fetus. The second part included the main variables of the study, i.e., life satisfaction and self-efficacy. Due to the hidden nature of the life satisfaction variable, latent profile analysis was used for optimal classification with the least error. Descriptive analysis, chi-square, and one-way analysis of variance were performed in Stata-16 software, and latent profile analysis by MPLUS 8.3.

The general self-efficacy score of pregnant women had a significant difference based on fetal gender (P=0.0004), number of pregnancies (P=0.04), and gestational age (P=0.002); However, based on the variables of occupation (P=0.667), mother's education (P=0.345), and age group (P=0.439), there was no statistically significant difference. Profiles of life satisfaction based on the variables of fetal sex (P=0.744), number of pregnancies (0.521), gestational age (0.194), occupation (P=0.433), mother's education (P=0.429) and age group (P=0.563) was not statistically significant. In addition, the pregnant women's general self-efficacy score had no statistically significant difference based on the life satisfaction profiles (P=0.152).

Typically, general self-efficacy is not correlated with life satisfaction in pregnant women. Maybe indirect self-efficacy (for example as mediator) can justify this issue.