The Effect of Social, Family and Individual Conditioning Factors on Self-care Agency and Self-care of Adult Mexican Women

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to test the theoretical relationships between the self-care agency (SCA) and self-care (SC); and the influence of selected basic conditioning factors (BCFs) on women's self-care agency, and self-care actions. The Self-care Deficit Theory (SCDT) of Nursing (Orem, 1995) was the conceptual framework for this theory testing research. Both theoretical and practical relevance were achieved by testing the relationships among factors explaining adult women's preventive and health promotion behaviors.

A cross-sectional, correlational design was used to test 12 hypotheses and four research questions, with a random sample of well adult Mexican women (18 to 85 years old) recruited from the County of Guadalupe, State of Nuevo Leon, Mexico $(N=261).$ The sample represented four out of five socioeconomic status recognized in the State of Nuevo Leon. Data were collected by personal interview in the women's homes. Four instruments were used to measure the BCFs: Family Environment Scale, Decision Power Index, Dominos Test, MOS-Short Form General Health Survey; and three indexes: the Marginality Index, the Corporal Mass Index, and the Urban Poverty Index constructed especially for this investigation. Self-care agency was measured by the Appraisal of Self-care Agency Scale (ASA), and self-care by the Self-care Inventory (SCI). Data analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The hypotheses testing supported Orem's propositions relating self-care agency and self-care actions; and relating basic conditioning factors with self-care agency, and with self-care. Nine percent of the self-care variance was predicted by self-care agency. Five percent of the variance on women's self-care agency was predicted by the selected BCFs; and 24% of the performance of self-care was predicted by the selected BCFs. The results are discussed in terms of nursing knowledge generated and the potentiality of applying this knowledge to strengthen nursing interventions.

Overall, the results of this investigation showed: (a) a preeminence of perceived health state and physical development predicting women's SCA and SC performance, (b) a significant effect of level of poverty on women's SC performance, (c) a relevant role of family functioning on women's SC performance, (d) a small amount of SCA variance explained by the selected BCFs, and a small amount of women's self-care performance variance explained by self-care agency, (e) the need for more culturally sensitive instruments, and (f) the usefulness of the proposed model to explain the preventive and health promotion behaviors of adult Mexican women.