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To Use or Not to Use: Male Partners' Perspectives on Decision Making About Prenatal Diagnosis
Author(s) -
Kenen Regina,
Smith Ann C. M.,
Watkins Carolee,
ZuberPittore Carol
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of genetic counseling
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.867
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1573-3599
pISSN - 1059-7700
DOI - 10.1023/a:1009429106757
Subject(s) - genetic counseling , prenatal diagnosis , referral , medicine , action (physics) , qualitative research , exploratory research , family medicine , psychology , pregnancy , genetics , social science , fetus , physics , quantum mechanics , sociology , anthropology , biology
We conducted an exploratory, qualitative pilot study investigating the use of genetic counseling and prenatal genetic technologies between women and their male partners for two referral groups: pregnant women 35 years of age and over (AMA) at the time of delivery and pregnant women with an abnormal maternal serum triple screen (MSAFP3). The convenience sample consisted of 25 semistructured interviews and 50 observations of genetic counseling sessions. Male partners' styles of decision making and the way they viewed prenatal diagnosis decision making were examined. We defined three decision‐making styles based on our interpretation of the data: (1) domain, (2) joint‐delegated, and (3) saliency. The male partners also seemed to view prenatal diagnosis as either an information decision or an action decision and appeared to take a more active role in decision making when the decision was viewed as an action decision.