The Effect of Marital Adjustment and Fear of COVID-19 on Pregnancy Distress: A Cross-sectional Study in a Pregnancy Sample in Turkey

Aim: We aimed to investigate the effects of COVID-19 related fears and marital adjustment on distress in pregnant women. Materials and Methods: This study is a cross-sectional descriptive study. The sample of the study consisted of 161 pregnant women who were followed up in a private hospital in Ankara between May and September 2020. Sociodemographic data form, Fear of COVID-19 Scale, Tilburg Pregnancy Distress Scale (TPDS), and Marital Adjustment Scale (MAS) were used in the study. Results: The mean age of the pregnant women in the sample was 29.64±4.47 years. While the rate of chronic disease was 8.7% (n=14), the rate of psychiatric disease was 2.5% (n=4). 7.5% (n=12) of the sample described their current pregnancy as unwanted pregnancy. The negative affect sub-dimension scores of TPDS were predicted by the Fear of COVID-19 Scale score (β=0.473, p