Human Ecology Research

The Korean Home Economics Association (대한가정학회)
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The Mediating Role of Self-esteem between Spousal Support and Infertility-related Stress among Infertile Couples: Actor Effects and Partner Effects

난임 부부의 배우자 지지와 난임 스트레스의 관계에서 자아존중감의 매개효과: 자기효과와 상대방효과를 중심으로

  • Lee, Ka Yeon (Dept. of Child and Family Studies, Yonsei University) ;
  • Kim, Seong Hee (Recision Biology Research Center, Sungkyunkwan University)
  • 이가연 (연세대학교 일반대학교 아동가족학과) ;
  • 김성희 (성균관대학교 국제협력융합바이오연구소)
  • Received : 2021.08.10
  • Accepted : 2021.09.30
  • Published : 2021.11.30
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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine actor and partner effects among infertile couples in determining whether self-esteem affects the degree of infertility-related stress via perceived spousal support. The sample comprised 219 couples who experienced infertility, each of whom completed an online survey. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics, t-test, correlation analysis and APIM (Actor-Partner Interdependence Model) were performed using SPSS 25.0 and Mplus 7.3 program. The main results were as follows. First, the actor effect of spousal support on self-esteem was significant in both husbands and wives. Second, the actor effects of spousal support on infertility-related stress and self-esteem on infertility stress were significant only in husbands. Third, in the association between husbands' and wives' spousal support and infertility-related stress, three mediating pathways via husband's self-esteem were found to be significant. Based on these results, the necessity for a couple-level analysis in infertility research, psycho-emotional interventions for infertile couples, and implications for follow-up studies were discussed.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NFR-2020S1A5A8040321).

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