Pathways From Socioeconomic Status to Prenatal Smoking: A Test of the Reserve Capacity Model

Low-income, unemployed women with low levels of education are more likely to smoke during pregnancy compared to their higher-income, employed, and well-educated counterparts. The reserve capacity model (RCM) offers a theoretical framework to explain how psychosocial factors may serve as pathways connecting socioeconomic status (SES) to health behaviors. Research supports the link between prenatal smoking and several psychosocial variables such as chronic stressors, depressive symptoms, and social support. How these variables interrelate to explain the predominance of prenatal smoking in lower socioeconomic groups of pregnant women has not been fully elucidated.

The aim of this study was to test the RCM to evaluate the roles of early pregnancy levels of chronic stress, quality of the primary intimate relationship, and depressive symptoms in explaining the relationship between SES and persistent prenatal smoking.

A secondary analysis of data from 370 pregnant nonsmokers, spontaneous quitters, and persistent prenatal smokers was conducted. On the basis of the RCM, chronic stressors, depressive symptoms, and the quality of the primary intimate relationship were evaluated as potential mediating variables linking SES with persistent prenatal smoking using path analysis.

Path analyses indicated that a simple model with all three psychosocial variables as mediators of the relationship between SES and persistent prenatal smoking provided the best fit.

Findings indicated that chronic stressors, depressive symptoms, and the quality of the primary intimate relationship play important roles in the pathway from SES to prenatal smoking status. This knowledge can assist in the development of prevention and intervention strategies to target these variables and ultimately reduce prenatal smoking.