This competing renewal proposal entitled """"""""Life Quality, Psychosocial Factors and Infertility - 2"""""""" is designed to further the work of our current NICHD-funded project. The theoretical model for this research is grounded in general stress theory. Infertility is conceptualized as a major life event that has a negative impact on a variety of psychological, social, and physical outcomes unless moderated by personal and social factors. During Phase 1 of this project, interviews were conducted with husbands and wives from 275 couples. 185 of these couples had a fertility problem, the remaining 90 did not and serve as a comparison group. Three annual waves of data have been collected. The reinterview rate has been very high (97% at Wave 2). The scales developed to measure the major concepts all have adequate reliability.
The specific aims of the original project have been augmented here to address (1) the longitudinal nature of the data set, and (2) the various ways in which infertility is resolved for couples--including having a natural child without intervention, having a natural child through advanced interventions (e.g., IVF, GIFT), adopting a child, and remaining childless. Given the number of children that these couples had produced by Wave 2, a variety of analyses should be possible with the Wave 3 data that can compare the well-being, sense of purpose, and values of couples with these different outcomes as well as differences in parenting style associated with difficulty in achieving parenthood. The infertility literature suggests that couples who have spent years trying to become parents may be overprotective of their children, but there has been no systematic examination of these issues with a large, multi-wave dataset as is available to this research team. Initial analyses support and augment the general theory underlying the project. The stress associated with infertility (rather than the mere existence of a fertility problem) is associated with reduced well-being, negative affect, and marital conflict. Phase 2 will focus on longitudinal analyses including items new to Wave 3 (e.g., parenting style, stress associated with adoption, current sense of purpose and values) and outcomes that were not prevalent enough to be examined at earlier waves (e.g., being a parent and different means of achieving parenthood). These results will have both theoretical and practical implications.
