Degree Level

B.A.

Program

Psychology

Abstract

Infertility is associated with psychological distress; women who experience miscarriage and recurrent miscarriage experience additional grief and trauma. Unfortunately, available psychological interventions for infertility are of limited efficacy; a new intervention is therefore needed. However, little is known about the psychotherapy preferences of women with infertility, and particularly whether miscarriage history is associated with treatment preferences. Thus, the current study evaluated the psychotherapy preferences of women with infertility as a function of miscarriage history. 410 North American women were recruited to complete an online survey assessing their quality of life, depressive symptoms, anxiety, and preferences of 14 psychotherapy techniques endorsed by the American Psychological Association. An age adjusted ANCOVA revealed no significant differences in anxiety, depression, and emotional, relational, and social quality of life between women with varied pregnancy loss histories (i.e., no losses, 1 loss, 2+ losses), though significant differences in mind-body quality of life were detected (p = .044). Furthermore, binary logistic regression analyses of ranked psychotherapy techniques illustrated a preference for ‘challenging core beliefs’ and ‘de-escalation and restructuring for couples.’ Results were partly consistent with previous work that speaks to the efficacy of specific therapy approaches, though further investigation is needed to fully understand variance in participant preferences. Ultimately, the results of the current study will be wielded to create an infertility-specific psychological intervention tailored to the needs of those with pregnancy loss histories.

Publication Date

Fall 12-15-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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