Trauma Fehlgeburt. Einflussfaktoren auf das Angsterleben nach dem frühen Verlust eines Kindes

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

The experience of miscarriage results in tremendous emotional disturbance for many affected women. Depression, anxiety, (pathological) grief, and posttraumatic stress symptoms are commonly experienced reactions. Several factors influence the level of emotional distress, like age, previous experience of miscarriage, or social support. In this work, we investigated the level of emotional distress after miscarriage using a novel methodological approach. Through the world wide web, N = 500 texts of women who reported freely on their miscarriage were accessed and analyzed using the Dresden Anxiety Dictionary, a German computerized version of the Gottschalk-Gleser speech analysis. The women were 28 years old on average. The texts were written, on average, about 28 days after the miscarriage. Women's pregnancy had lasted between 2 and 40 weeks (M = 12). The scores pertaining to death anxiety and mutilation anxiety were higher than the norm. More than 20% of the women reported an increased level of anxiety. Variables that influenced the level of anxiety were age, time since miscarriage, duration of pregnancy, previous miscarriage, and social support. The results underscore the need for treatment, at least for subgroups of affected women who have a higher risk for a complicated course of coping with miscarriage.
Translated title of the contribution
The Trauma of Miscarriage - Factors Influencing the Experience of Anxiety After Early Pregnancy Loss

Details

Original languageGerman
Pages (from-to)314-320
Number of pages7
JournalPsychotherapie, Psychosomatik, medizinische Psychologie : PPmP
Volume59
Issue number8
Publication statusPublished - 2009
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

WOS 000269800200005
PubMed 18821478
researchoutputwizard legacy.publication#30970
Scopus 69949123447
ORCID /0000-0002-1491-9195/work/142255945

Keywords

Keywords

  • Dresden Anxiety Dictionary, Gottschalk-Gleser, Anxiety, Content analysis, Miscarriage, Stillbirth