THE PREDICTION OF MARITAL ADJUSTMENT BASED ON COGNITIVE EMOTION REGULATION STRATEGIES IN INFERTILE COUPLES

Infertility and its treatment bring about such consequences as disturbance, frustration, depression, anxiety, hopelessness, feeling of guilt, and feeling of worthlessness in life. Using adaptive emotion regulation strategies in the face of stressful life tasks reduces negative emotions and increases individual adjustment.Therefore, the aim of this study was to predict marital adjustment based on cognitive strategies of emotion regulation among infertile couples.

The present research was a descriptive correlational study. All infertile couples presenting to the Mother and Child Hospital of Shiraz in the summer of 2013 constituted the statistical population of this study. The research sample consisted of 122 infertile couples who were selected via convenience sampling method. Spanier's Dyadic Adjustment Scale and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire were employed to collect data. Data analysis was performed through Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis.

The results showed that there is a significant negative relationship between marital adjustment and Catastrophising (r = - 0.31, P = 0.000). Also, there is a significant positive relationship between marital adjustment and putting into perspective (r = 0.19, P = 0.003), marital adjustment and positive refocusing (r = 0.36, P = 0.000), marital adjustment and positive reappraisal (r = 0.32, P = 0.000) and marital adjustment and refocus on planning (r = 0.30, p = 0.003). Multiple linear regression results also showed that positive refocusing (B = 0.211, P = 0.01) and Catastrophising (B = - 0.287, P = 0.000) are predictive power of marital adjustment in infertile couples and explain for 22.6% of the variance of infertile couples' marital adjustment.

The findings of this study confirmed the relationship between cognitive emotion regulation strategies and marital adjustment of infertile couples. Therefore, it is suggested that the necessary conditions be provided for the collaboration of infertility specialists with psychologists in infertility treatment centers and it is also recommended that psychological counseling centers be established in these centers in order to improve the psychological problems and marital adjustment of these patients.