The Relationships Between Self-compassion, Positive and Negative Affect, and Marital Quality in Infertile Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Infertility presents extensive psychological effects on infertile couple’s marital life, especially in women during infertility treatment. Studying the essential psychological factors and their correlations on a large scale could rehabilitate the mental health of infertile women and facilitate the stressful process of infertility treatment. This systematic review aimed to study the literature and relationships among self-compassion, positive and negative affect, and marital quality in infertile women.

To examine the considered association, a comprehensive literature search was performed to identify relevant articles in English and Persian published from 2000 to May 2020 and indexed in Pubmed, Google Scholar, Scopus, Science Direct, Jstore, Cochrane Library, Medline, SID, Irandoc, Civilica, and Magiran. The study eligibility criteria included only infertile couples/women who were clinically diagnosed with infertility. The measurement tools used by studies consisted of at least one of the following: Self-Compassion Scale (SCS); Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS); Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS), and infertility-related questionnaires. The search strategy of this review was per PICO (Population, Intervention, Control, and Outcomes) and included the terms Self-Compassion (SC), Positive and Negative Affect (PANA), and Marital Quality (MQ) in infertile women. To identify further eligible studies, the bibliographies of primary articles were manually searched to meet the inclusion criteria. The quality of studies was graded by GRADE from the Cochrane handbook. The studies were investigated concerning design, risk of bias, inconsistency, indirectness, imprecision, and publication.

SC could play a mediating role in the relationship with PANA, and MQ in infertile women undergoing infertility treatment.

This systematic review highlighted the importance of addressing psychological characteristics which can affect the biopsychological health of infertile women undergoing infertility treatment.