Family resilience is a protective buffer in the relationship between infertility-related stress and psychological distress among females preparing for their first in vitro fertilization–embryo transfer

Abstract

The present study aimed to evaluate psychological distress and scrutinized whether family resilience plays a moderating role in the association between infertility-related stress and psychological distress among infertile females preparing for their first IVF-ET. A total of 492 infertile females completed self-reported measures including the Kessler 10 Psychological Distress Scale (K10), the fertility problem inventory (FPI), and the Family Resilience Assessment Scale (FRAS). The results showed 21 (65.2%) participants reported moderate or higher levels of psychological distress. While controlling for economic status, we found psychological distress to be positively linked to infertility-related stress (<i>β</i>=0.483, <i>P<</i>0.001), and negatively related to family resilience (<i>β</i>=-0.145, <i>P</i>=0.001). The simple slopes analysis showed that infertility-related stress had a weaker positive association with psychological distress for individuals at 1 SD (<i>β </i>= 0.443, <i>P</i> < 0.001) above the mean on family resilience compared to those at 1 SD (<i>β </i>= 0.537, <i>P </i>< 0.001) below the mean. Thus, it suggests that clinical practice should conduct family resilience-oriented interventions to facilitate family resilience among infertile females preparing for their first IVF-ET, with the goal to reduce psychological distress.