title: Resilience and social support promote posttraumatic growth of women with infertility: the mediating role of positive coping.
abstract: According to previous research, clinical experience with individuals facing infertility has demonstrated that positive psychological changes can arise from the struggle involved (Paul et al., 2010), which is called posttraumatic growth (PTG). However, little knowledge has been gained about the relationships between PTG and its facilitating factors. The present study examined whether resilience and social support could predict PTG in women with infertility. The role of positive coping as a potential mediator was also assessed. Using a cross-sectional design, all members of a convenience sample of 182 women with infertility completed self-report measures of PTG, resilience, perceived social support, positive coping and background information. It was found that resilience, social support and positive coping positively correlated with PTG, which explained 34.0% of the total variance. The results suggested that positive coping partially mediated the impact of resilience on PTG while it totally mediated the relationship between social support and PTG. These findings demonstrated that, in clinical settings, improving positive coping in women with infertility may be helpful for the attainment of PTG.
authors.affiliation: Department of Military Psychology, College of Psychology, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
authors.forename: Yongju
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Military Psychology, College of Psychology, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Department of Military Psychology, College of Psychology, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
authors.forename: Long
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Reproductive Medical Center, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Long
authors.affiliation: Reproductive Medical Center, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: Department of Military Psychology, College of Psychology, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China. Electronic address: limin52267@tmmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Military Psychology, College of Psychology, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D057566:Self Report; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Infertility; Positive coping; Posttraumatic growth; Resilience; Social support