The Role of Metacognitive Beliefs and Experiential Avoidance in Predicting Psychological Distress with the Mediation of Adaptation to Infertility in Infertile Women

infertility is phenomenon which seriously damages infertile women’s mental health and causes psychological distress in them. Therefore, the present study was conducted aiming to investigate the role of metacognitive beliefs and experiential avoidance in predicting psychological distress with the mediation of adaptation to infertility in infertile women.

the research method was descriptive from correlational and structural equations type. The statistical population of the current study was infertile women who referred to Royan infertility center in the city of Tehran in the third quarter of 2018. The sample of the present study which included 350 infertile women who were selected through convenient method. The applied questionnaires in this study included the questionnaire of metacognitive beliefs (Wales and Kateraight-Hawton, 2004), the questionnaire of acceptance and action (Bond, et.la, 2011), the scale of mental-social adaptation to disease (Derogits and Derogits, 1990) and the questionnaire of psychological distress (Kesler, et.al, 2002). After collecting the questionnaires, the analysis of data was conducted through Pearson correlation method and structural equation.

the results showed that there is a significant relationship between variables (p < 0.001). In addition, the mediating role of adaptation to infertility was confirmed in the relationship of metacognitive beliefs and experiential avoidance with psychological distress in infertile women.