The relationship of mental health and cognitive-emotional states with family planning attitudes in young women with chronic diseases

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship of mental health and cognitive emotional states with family planning attitudes in young women with chronic diseases.<br /> Methods: This cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted between 12 January 2022 and 01 April 2022. The study included a total of 410 young women with chronic diseases who were hospitalized in the internal medicine clinics of a university hospital or presented to the internal medicine clinics for examination. Data were collected using a Personal Information Form, the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF), the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), and the Family Planning Attitude Scale (FPAS).<br /> Results: It was found that 20.2% (n=83) of the young women with chronic diseases had scores below the FPAS (135.5 +/- 22.1) cut-off point (<119). Women with a poor mental health, those using maladaptive cognitive coping strategies (self-blame, rumination, catastrophizing, other-blame), and those using compatible cognitive coping strategies less (acceptance, refocusing on planning, positive refocusing, positive reappraisal, and putting into perspective) had a negative family planning attitude (p< .05). In addition, the followings were found to be important associated risk factors for family planning attitude: poor mental health, self-blame (CERQ sub-dimension), use of maladaptive cognitive coping strategy, and decreased use of adaptive positive refocusing (CERQ sub-dimension) (p< .05).<br /> Conclusion: It was determined that young women with chronic illness with a poor mental health, who use adaptive cognitive coping strategies less, and who use maladaptive cognitive coping strategies more have negative family planning attitudes.