The relationship between self-care agency, self-care, and health in the pregnant adolescent

A descriptive, correlational design was used to determine the relationship between basic conditioning factors, self-care agency, self-care, and health in pregnant adolescents, 14-19 years. Prenatal adolescent clinics at two research sites were used to select 100 volunteer adolescents by convenience nonprobability sampling. The mean age of the adolescents in this study was 17.48 years; half (50%) of the sample was black and 78 (78.8%) were single. Most of the adolescents attended school (60; 60.6%) and did not have jobs (86; 86%). The family income was low with 41 (46.7%) indicating a monthly income of less than $999. The minimal educational level was the 6th grade. Instruments included a Demographic Data Sheet and the Denyes Self-Care Agency, Self-Care Practice, and Health Status Instruments. No significant correlations were found between selected basic conditioning factors (e.g., age, birth order, siblings, marital status, and ethnicity) and self-care. A significant positive correlation was found between self-care agency and self-care ({\it r} = .7648, {\it p/} .001) as well as between self-care and health ({\it r} = .7650, {\it p/} .001). Results of a multiple regression analysis revealed that two subscales of self-care agency (ego strength and health decision-making capability; and attention to health) accounted for 59% of the variance in self-care. Together self-care agency and self-care accounted for 61% of the variance in health.