A dyadic mediation study on social support, coping, and stress among couples starting fertility treatment.

This study adopted a dyadic approach to explore the associations between social support and stress as mediated by coping among infertile couples. All these variables were infertility-specific. A total of 201 couples starting their first assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment completed self-reports of infertility-specific support from spouse and from social network, infertility-related coping with four strategies (active-avoidance, active-confronting, passive-avoidance, and meaning-based), and infertility stress. The actor-partner interdependence model was applied. Results indicated that dyadic associations between support and stress were either direct or mediated by individual or partner coping, with differences based on gender, source of support, and coping strategy. For both genders, greater support from spouse was associated with lower individual and partner stress directly and indirectly, through lower partner's use of active-avoidance coping. In men, the relationship between support from spouse and stress was also mediated by individual/partner avoidance coping strategies. As for support from social network, greater levels were directly associated with a lower partner stress in women and with higher individual stress in men. For both genders, the relationship between support from social network and stress was also mediated by active-confronting coping, which was associated with higher individual and partner stress. The findings suggest a potential protective role of support from spouse and an adverse effect of that from people outside the dyad. Interventions for couples starting ART treatment should focus on promoting infertility-related communication and support within the couple, which might help to reduce the use of infertility-specific maladaptive coping strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Spirituality, infertility-related stress, and quality of life in Brazilian infertile couples: Analysis using the actor-partner interdependence mediation model.

Infertility has a stressful impact on both partners, with adverse effects on the quality of life of infertile couples. Spirituality is a meaning-based strategy that can protect couples against infertility's negative impact on quality of life, but analysis of this mediator relationship in infertile couples has not been reported. We adopted a dyadic approach and used the actor-partner interdependence mediation model to examine whether and how women's and men's spirituality was associated with their own and their partners' infertility-related stress and quality of life. In 2014, 152 infertile couples starting their first fertility treatment at a private clinic in Brazil were recruited and completed self-reports of spirituality, infertility-related stress, and quality of life. Results indicated that women's and men's level of spirituality was positively associated with their own quality of life directly and indirectly, by reducing their own infertility-related stress. Their spirituality was associated with an increase in their partners' quality of life only indirectly, by reducing their partners' infertility-related stress. Findings highlight the importance of assessing and promoting spirituality as a coping resource that infertile women and men might use to deal with the stress of infertility and reduce its adverse effects on quality of life.