title: Resilience in infertile couples acts as a protective factor against infertility-specific distress and impaired quality of life.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our hypothesis was that resilience (=psychosocial stress-resistance) reduces infertility-specific distress and maintains quality of life of infertile couples.
  
  
  METHODS
  Questionnaire data of WHO Quality of Life assessment (WHOQOL; domains: 'physical', 'psychological', 'social relationships' and 'environment'), Fertility Problem Inventory (FPI; scales: 'social concern', 'sexual concern', 'relationship concern', 'rejection of childfree lifestyle' and 'need for parenthood'), Resilience Scale (RS), as well as sociographic and medical data were available for 199 infertile couples.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Age, medical diagnosis and 'intensity of desire for a child' had no influence on quality of life. High scores on 'suffering from childlessness' went along with less satisfaction on 'physical' and 'psychological' domains for the women only. For both partners, high scores on 'suffering from childlessness' went along with higher scores on all FPI scales. High resilience was associated with high scores on all WHOQOL domains for both partners, also with low scores on all FPI scales except for 'need for parenthood' for the women and with a low score only on 'relationship concern' for the men.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For infertile couples, resilience can be considered as an unspecific protective factor against infertility-specific distress and impaired quality of life. When offering counselling to involuntarily childless couples, awareness should be raised for resilience as a couple's resource and a "generic" factor of coping.
authors: Institute of Medical Psychology, Centre for Psychosocial Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Bergheimer Straße 20, 69115, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors: Darja
authors: D
authors: Herrmann
authors: Horst
authors: H
authors: Scherg
authors: Rolf
authors: R
authors: Verres
authors: Cornelia
authors: C
authors: von Hagens
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Strowitzki
authors: Tewes
authors: T
authors: Wischmann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007246:Infertility / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D043762:Reproductive Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D018454:Spouses / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult