Occupational social class, coping responses and infertility-related stress of women undergoing infertility treatment.

The aims of this study were to examine the association between (1) occupational social class and coping responses, (2) coping responses and infertility-related stress and (3) occupational social class and infertility-related distress. The coping strategies that individuals use in most of the stressful situations vary according to certain factors, such as, the appraised characteristics of the stressful condition, personality dispositions and social resources. This study was a cross-sectional survey. The study involved 404 women undergoing infertility treatment at a public clinic in Athens, Greece. State and trait anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory), infertility-related stress (Copenhagen Multi-centre Psychosocial Infertility) and coping strategies (Copenhagen Multi-centre Psychosocial Infertility) were measured. Women of low/very low social class reported higher levels of active-confronting coping compared with women of higher social class (p < 0·001). A positive correlation between active-avoidance coping and both state and trait anxiety (r = 0·278 and 0·233, respectively, p < 0·01) was observed. The passive-avoidance coping scale was positively correlated with marital and personal stress (r = 0·186 and 0·146, respectively, p < 0·01). All three kinds of stress (marital, personal and social) were positively correlated with both active-avoidance (r = 0·302, 0·423 and 0·211, respectively, p < 0·01) and active-confronting scale (r = 0·150, 0·211 and 0·141, respectively, p < 0·01). Infertile women of the lowest social class used more active-confronting coping and more passive-avoidance coping than women of the highest social class. Factors such as low social class and maladaptive coping strategies might contribute to infertility-related stress and anxiety. Nurses and midwives who work in infertility clinics should aim to identify individuals who are at high risk for infertility stress and adjustment difficulties and they should minimise the identified risk factors for infertility-related stress and strengthen the protective factors.

Lykeridou K ，Gourounti K ，Sarantaki A ，Loutradis D ，Vaslamatzis G ，Deltsidou A ... -  《-》

Infertility and assisted reproduction in Denmark. Epidemiology and psychosocial consequences.

Schmidt L 《-》

Direct and indirect effects of perceived social support on women's infertility-related stress.

Martins MV ，Peterson BD ，Almeida VM ，Costa ME ... -  《-》

Perception of control, coping and psychological stress of infertile women undergoing IVF.

The study aimed to examine: (i) the association between perception of infertility controllability and coping strategies; and (ii) the association between perception of infertility controllability and coping strategies to psychological distress, applying multivariate statistical techniques to control for the effects of demographic variables. This cross-sectional study included 137 women with fertility problems undergoing IVF in a public hospital. All participants completed questionnaires that measured fertility-related stress, state anxiety, depressive symptomatology, perception of control and coping strategies. Pearson's correlation coefficients were calculated between all study variables, followed by hierarchical multiple linear regression. Low perception of personal and treatment controllability was associated with frequent use of avoidance coping and high perception of treatment controllability was positively associated with problem-focused coping. Multivariate analysis showed that, when controlling for demographic factors, low perception of personal control and avoidance coping were positively associated with fertility-related stress and state anxiety, and problem-appraisal coping was negatively and significantly associated with fertility-related stress and depressive symptomatology scores. The findings of this study merit the understanding of the role of control perception and coping in psychological stress of infertile women to identify beforehand those women who might be at risk of experiencing high stress and in need of support.

Gourounti K ，Anagnostopoulos F ，Potamianos G ，Lykeridou K ，Schmidt L ，Vaslamatzis G ... -  《-》

The social epidemiology of coping with infertility.

Schmidt L ，Christensen U ，Holstein BE 《HUMAN REPRODUCTION》