Skip Navigation


Hum. Reprod. Advance Access originally published online on May 4, 2006
Human Reproduction 2006 21(9):2443-2449; doi:10.1093/humrep/del145
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF ) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
21/9/2443    most recent
del145v1
Right arrow Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (4)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Peterson, B.D.
Right arrow Articles by Skaggs, G.E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Peterson, B.D.
Right arrow Articles by Skaggs, G.E.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Gender differences in how men and women who are referred for IVF cope with infertility stress

B.D. Peterson1,5, C.R. Newton2, K.H. Rosen3 and G.E. Skaggs4

1 Department of Psychology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA 2 Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ontario, Canada 3 Virginia Tech, Marriage and Family Therapy Program, Northern Virginia Graduate Center, Falls Church and 4 Virginia Tech, Education Leadership and Policy Studies, Blacksburg, VA, USA

5 To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Psychology, Chapman University, One University Drive, Orange, CA 92866, USA. E-mail: bpeterson{at}chapman.edu

BACKGROUND: Men and women use a variety of coping strategies to manage stress associated with infertility. Although previous research has helped us understand these coping processes, questions remain about gender differences in coping and the nature of the relationship between coping and specific types of infertility stress. METHODS: This study examined the coping behaviours of 1026 (520 women, 506 men) consecutively referred patients at a University-affiliated teaching hospital. Participants completed the Ways of Coping Questionnaire, Fertility Problem Inventory and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. RESULTS: Women used proportionately greater amounts of confrontative coping, accepting responsibility, seeking social support and escape/avoidance when compared with men, whereas men used proportionately greater amounts of distancing, self-controlling and planful problem-solving. For men and women, infertility stress was positively related to escape/avoidance and accepting responsibility and negatively related to seeking social support, planful problem-solving and distancing. CONCLUSIONS: By analysing relative coping scores, this study identified key gender differences in how men and women cope with infertility. This was particularly true for men’s coping processes that had previously remained hidden because of less frequent use of coping strategies when compared with women.

Key words: coping/gender/infertility stress/in vitro fertilization/marital adjustment


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Hum ReprodHome page
W.S. Tuil, C.M. Verhaak, P.F. De Vries Robbe, and J.A.M. Kremer
IVF patients show three types of online behaviour
Hum. Reprod., July 25, 2008; (2008) den275v1.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Hum ReprodHome page
B.D. Peterson, M. Pirritano, U. Christensen, and L. Schmidt
The impact of partner coping in couples experiencing infertility
Hum. Reprod., May 1, 2008; 23(5): 1128 - 1137.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Hum ReprodHome page
T. M. Cousineau, T. C. Green, E. Corsini, A Seibring, M. T. Showstack, L. Applegarth, M. Davidson, and M. Perloe
Online psychoeducational support for infertile women: a randomized controlled trial
Hum. Reprod., March 1, 2008; 23(3): 554 - 566.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.