Guided Imagery: Reducing Stress and Improving Well-being in Pregnant Adolescents

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of a guided imagery intervention on perceived stress in pregnant adolescents.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Stress, Psychological
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Guided Imagery

Detailed Description

Pregnant adolescents attending a local alternative education program will be subjects of this study. Students will participate in four, 15 minute guided imagery sessions over about a 4-6 week period. They will complete a pregnancy specific stress questionnaire before beginning and after completion of the guided imagery protocol. The students will also complete a short 9-question stress measure before and after each of the individual guided imagery sessions.

The specific aims are:

1. to evaluate whether a guided imagery intervention reduces perceived stress in pregnant adolescents; and
2. to evaluate whether a guided imagery intervention enhances well-being in pregnant adolescents.

The hypotheses are that the intervention will reduce perceived stress and enhance well-being in these subjects. The purpose of this study is to assess whether employing a guided imagery intervention with pregnant teens and education will reduce perceived stress levels and improve well-being.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 35
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 13 years to 21 years (Child, Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• All pregnant students ages 13-21 enrolled in the alternative education program for parenting teens were eligible to participate

Exclusion Criteria:

• Participants were excluded from the study if they delivered their babies prior to completing four sessions of guided imagery intervention.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Guided Imagery; Participants listened to a pregnancy-specific guided imagery recording on four separate occasions during their pregnancies. Perceived stress was measured immediately pre and post each listening session using the Perceived Stress Measure-9 (PSM-9).	Behavioral: Guided Imagery; A fifteen minute recording of gentle music together with soft talking to guide relaxation.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Psychological Stress Measure-9 (PSM-9) score	Participants will complete the PSM-9 before and after listening to guided imagery sessions for each of the 4 weekly intervention sessions. The Psychological Stress Measure-9 (PSM-9) is a 9 item questionnaire measuring stress. The original form was published in Canada by Louise Lemyre, PHD and Rejean Tessier, PHD in 1988 and the 9 item was published in 2002. Each response rests on an 8 point likert scale. For general surveys of health and well-being in the workplace, an abridged 9-item version was developed to meet a variety of research needs and applications. The PSM-9 version is used at Hydro-Quebec and Renault (France) as well as in public service, hospitals, community services, and private practice. It has the same psychometric qualities of reliability, validity, and internal consistency (.89) and maintains the same heuristic value for statistics: normality of distribution and responsiveness (Lemyre, Chair, & Lalande-Markon, 2009).	4 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Karla Ausderau, PhD, OTR/L, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: November 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 1, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): November 1, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 1, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 16, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): December 21, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): November 6, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 2, 2018
• Last Verified: November 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Stress, Psychological
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2015-0105