Empowerment and psychological wellbeing of women in the southern region of Jordan: in the context utilization of reproductive health care services

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between empowerment and psychological wellbeing among women in the southern region of Jordan. The study addressed women s empowerment in terms of their abilities to make decisions related to family planning, utilizing pre and postnatal care, and pregnancy related issues.Methods: A descriptive-correlational design was used to collect data from 807 women in the southern region of Jordan in relation to empowerment and psychological wellbeing variables. Results: Analysis showed that women have moderate to high level abilities to make decisions related to their reproductive health (M=32.4, SD=5.6). Women displayed a high level of selfconfidence (M=17.2, SD=2.2) and moderate to high level of psychological wellbeing in the three domains of the scale: autonomy (M=13.6, SD=3.5), environmental mastery (mean=13, SD=3.5) and self-acceptance (mean= 13.5, SD= 3.2). Positive, but low correlation magnitudes were observed between empowerment variables and psychological wellbeing ones. Conclusion: The findings indicated that the psychological wellbeing of women in Jordan was compromised. The study provided baseline data for health professionals on the connection between empowerment, psychological health and reproductive healthcare.