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Partner’s influences and other correlates of prenatal alcohol use
Results
Sample Characteristics
The complete sample consisted of 158 couples. The mean age of the 2 pregnant women was 31 years; the mean age of the partners was 34
years. Half of the sample reported a high educational level, and the
majority reported a net income of more than €3500 (which is at least
twice as high as the net medium household income in the Netherlands). More than a quarter of the pregnant women had consumed alcohol while they were aware that they were pregnant. A more detailed description of the overall sample is presented in Table 2.1.
Univariate Analyses of Correlates of Prenatal Alcohol Use
Table 2.2 lists the results of the chi-square tests and T-tests concerning the correlates of prenatal alcohol use, including perceived and reported partner norm, modeling and support. The results indicated that pregnant women using alcohol perceived that their partner considered alcohol abstinence important less often than pregnant women not drinking alcohol. Additionally, pregnant women using alcohol perceived that their partner drank alcohol in their presence more often when compared to pregnant women abstaining from alcohol. Compared to partners of pregnant women abstaining from alcohol, partners of pregnant women using alcohol reported that they believed that their pregnant spouse should abstain from alcohol less often, that they were using alcohol on more days per week; and that they provided a lower amount of support.
Pregnant women using alcohol were older, had a higher education, had less often experienced complications in a previous pregnancy, and had been drinking more drinks per day and reported more drinking days per week before pregnancy when compared to pregnant women who abstained from alcohol. Moreover, pregnant women using alcohol had less often received a midwife’s advice to abstain from alcohol; had
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