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Psychosocial Vulnerability, Resilience Resources, and Coping with Infertility: A Longitudinal Model of Adjustment to Primary Ovarian Insufficiency

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Background

The infertility associated with primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) presents significant emotional challenges requiring psychosocial adjustment. Few investigations have explored the longitudinal process of adaptation to POI.

Purpose

This longitudinal investigation tests a model of adjustment to POI that includes separate psychosocial vulnerability and resilience resource factors.

Methods

Among 102 women with POI, personal attributes reflective of vulnerability and resilience were assessed at baseline. Coping strategies were assessed 4 months later and measures of distress and well-being 12 months later.

Results

As hypothesized, confirmatory factor analysis yielded separate, inversely correlated vulnerability and resilience resource factors at baseline, and distress and well-being factors at 12 months. Contrary to predictions, maladaptive and adaptive coping strategies were not bi-factorial. Moreover, a single stand-alone strategy, avoidance (i.e., refusing to acknowledge stress), mediated the association between baseline vulnerability and 12-month distress.

Conclusions

For women with POI, interventional studies targeted to reduce avoidance are indicated.

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Abbreviations

POI:

Primary ovarian insufficiency

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the Primary Ovarian Insufficiency Group.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. VA Connecticut Healthcare System, 950 Campbell Ave., Mail Code 11ACSL-G, West Haven, CT, 06516, USA

    Mary A. Driscoll Ph.D.

  2. Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Mary A. Driscoll Ph.D.

  3. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Mary C. Davis Ph.D., Leona S. Aiken Ph.D. & Ellen W. Yeung Ph.D.

  4. Rachel’s Well, Inc., McLean, VA, USA

    Evelina Weidman Sterling Ph.D. MPH., MCHES

  5. Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Vien Vanderhoof CRNP, Karim Anton Calis Pharm.D., MPH., Vaishali Popat M.D., MPH, Sharon N. Covington MSW & Lawrence M. Nelson M.D.

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  1. Mary A. Driscoll Ph.D.
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  2. Mary C. Davis Ph.D.
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  10. Lawrence M. Nelson M.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mary A. Driscoll Ph.D..

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Authors’ Statement of Conflict of Interest and Adherence to Ethical Standards

No conflicts of interest are reported for Drs. Driscoll, Davis, Aiken, Yeung, Sterling, Popat or Nelson. Additionally, no conflicts of interest are reported for Ms. Vanderhoof, Calis, or Covington. All procedures performed in the present investigation were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Financial Support

This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.

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Driscoll, M.A., Davis, M.C., Aiken, L.S. et al. Psychosocial Vulnerability, Resilience Resources, and Coping with Infertility: A Longitudinal Model of Adjustment to Primary Ovarian Insufficiency. ann. behav. med. 50, 272–284 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-015-9750-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-015-9750-z

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