Deakin University
Browse

File(s) under permanent embargo

Social support and women’s reproductive decision making: testing emergent fit of 'optimizing support for the preservation of self'

journal contribution
posted on 2020-06-01, 00:00 authored by S Clarke, Hayley MckenzieHayley Mckenzie, G Lamaro Haintz, Melissa GrahamMelissa Graham
Despite the strong association between social support and positive health outcomes, little is understood about its role in women’s reproductive decision making. Developing insight into how women perceive, mobilize, and experience social support is critical to understanding their lived experiences of reproductive decision making and to implementing appropriate supporting structures to help women realize their reproductive choices. In this study, emergent fit with existing inductive research on the phenomenon of reproductive support is discussed. The existing theory of “optimizing social support for the preservation of self” and its underpinning categorical framework is maintained, but the extant categorical themes were all nuanced, refined, replaced, or removed to better reflect the support phenomenon among a wider cohort of women. This article builds on the existing knowledge base by producing a substantive theory of “optimizing social support for the preservation of self” with wider applicability.

History

Journal

Qualitative health research

Volume

30

Issue

7

Pagination

975 - 987

Publisher

Sage

Location

London, Eng.

ISSN

1049-7323

eISSN

1552-7557

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal