Premium
Male Partners' Appraisals of Undesired Pregnancy and Abortion: Implications for Women's Adjustment to Abortion
Author(s) -
Major Brenda,
Cozzarelli Catherine,
Testa Maria,
Mueller Pallas
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1992.tb00992.x
Subject(s) - abortion , coping (psychology) , attribution , psychology , pregnancy , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , obstetrics , medicine , genetics , biology
The impact of men's attributions for pregnancy and expectations for coping with abortion on their partner's post‐abortion adjustment was examined. Men's and women's attributions and coping expectations were assessed in a sample of 73 couples prior to obtaining a first‐trimester abortion of an undesired pregnancy. Women's depression was assessed 30 minutes post‐abortion. Partners did not differ in their coping expectations or attributions of the pregnancy to chance, situation, another person, or their own behavior, but men blamed the pregnancy more on their own character than did their partners. Male partner's coping expectancies affected women's adjustment only if the women themselves had low coping expectancies. Among women with low coping expectancies, those accompanied by partners who also had low coping expectancies were the most depressed. Men's attributions were unrelated to their partner's adjustment.