Resilience and Marital Satisfaction to Mediate the Relationship between Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies and Disease Compatibility in Infertile Women

Infertility could be a life crisis with various biosociocultural, emotional, and financial problems. Infertile couples may encounter social pressures in addition to the direct impacts of infertility. Infertility could particularly be a source of psychosocial suffering for women. In some communities, childbearing inability is only attributed to women; thus, there exists a gender–related bias concerning couple’s infertility. Numerous interpersonal and intrapersonal characteristics affect adapting to infertility. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of resilience and marital satisfaction in the relationship between adaptive and maladaptive strategies of cognitive emotion regulation and compatibility to disease in infertile women.

The present descriptive–correlational study employed structural equation modeling. The statistical population of the present study consisted of all infertile women referring to infertility treatment centers in Tehran City, Iran, in 2017 who received infertility treatment for the first time. A convenience sampling method was used to select the study participants. To determine the sample size, according to Klein (2011), the number of routes was considered as a criterion and 25 subjects were selected per route. Finally, 225 infertile women participated in this study. The measurement tools were the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Garnefski et al., 2001), the Conner–Davidson Resilience Scale (Conner & Davidson, 2003), the Enrich Marital Satisfaction Scale (Fowers & Olson, 1993), and the Adaptation to Illness Scale (Besharat, 2002). The obtained data were analyzed by descriptive (mean & SD) and inferential (Pearson correlation coefficient & structural equation modeling) statistics in SPSS and AMOS.

The obtained results suggested that adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies presented a direct and significant effect on resilience (β=0.42, p<0.001) and marital satisfaction (β=0.37, p<0.001). Additionally, maladaptive cognitive emotion strategies were inversely and significantly predictive of resilience (β=–0.33, p<0.001) and marital satisfaction (β=–0.20, p<0.001). Besides, resilience (β=0.33, p<0.001) and marital satisfaction (β=0.27, p<0.001) provided a direct and significant effect on adaptation to illness. Moreover, adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (β=0.08, p=0.002) and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (β=–0.27, p<0.001), with the mediating role of resilience, could explain compatibility to infertility. Furthermore, adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (β=0.31, p<0.001) and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (β=–0.05, p=0.05), with the mediating role of marital satisfaction, could explain compatibility to infertility in the study subjects.

Based on the current research findings, individual and contextual factors can be effective in adapting to infertility in infertile women. Furthermore, resilience and marital satisfaction can play a mediating role between the dimensions of cognitive emotion regulation and adaptation to infertility.