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Differences between husbands' and wives' approach to infertility affect marital communication and adjustment
Lauri A Pasch1, Christine Dunkel-Schetter, Andrew Christensen
1Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA. pasch@itsa.ucsf.edu
Objective:
To test a theoretical model of the effect on marital communication and adjustment of men's and women's approach to infertility.
Design:
A cross-sectional research design involving interviews, questionnaires, and a marital discussion task.
Setting:
Volunteers from practices of fertility specialists.
Patient(S):
Forty-eight couples currently seeking infertility treatment.
Intervention(S):
None.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
Quality of marital communication during a marital discussion task and effect of infertility on the marriage.
Result(S):
Having children was more important to wives than husbands; wives were more involved in trying to have a baby, wanted to talk with their partner more about trying to have a baby, and experienced a greater loss of self-esteem than did their husbands. To the extent that husbands saw having children as important, were involved in trying to have a baby, or wanted to talk with their wives about trying to have a baby, the quality of marital communication when discussing infertility was less negative, and in turn, wives perceived a more positive effect of infertility on their marriage.
Conclusion(S):
Increases in husbands' interest and involvement in fertility treatment may lead to positive changes in couple communication about infertility and to a more positive effect of infertility on the marriage.