Exploring the relationship between spiritual well-being and stress and coping strategies in the mothers of infants hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care units

Background and Objective: The hospitalization of infants in the neonatal intensive care units impact intense stress on the mother. If this stress continues, in addition to endanger the health of the mother, will have also a negative impact on the mother-infant attachment process. Spiritual well-being as a variable affecting the coping strategy and stress levels is important, as well as, identifying the coping strategies by the mothers in this situation was explored.

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional and correlation study, data were collected during three months in 1392, from 191 mothers with their infants in the NICU of the teaching hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Tools for data collection were Lazarus and Folkman's ways of coping questionnaire, Ellison & Palvtzyan spiritual well-being scale, Mills parental stress and a demographic questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation test were used to achieve the objectives of this study.

Results: Spiritual well-being have a positive relationship with problem-focused strategy and inverse relationship with emotion-focused strategy (p < 0.000). In subscales of coping strategies, seeking social support had higher and escape- avoidance had the lowest mean averages which was used by the mothers. No significant relationship was found between spiritual well-being and stress scores. In addition, between stress levels and type of coping strategies, no significant relationship was found out.

Conclusion: According to the results of this study, it is necessary to consider stress factors associated with mothers. It is also necessary to strengthen the religious dimension of spiritual health, especially in women because of its association with problem-focused strategy.