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Development of a partnership causal model for couples undergoing fertility treatment
Author(s) -
Asazawa Kyoko,
Mori Akiko
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
japan journal of nursing science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.363
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1742-7924
pISSN - 1742-7932
DOI - 10.1111/jjns.12061
Subject(s) - general partnership , fertility , spouse , distress , path analysis (statistics) , structural equation modeling , quality of life (healthcare) , psychology , clinical psychology , medicine , demography , population , nursing , environmental health , sociology , political science , statistics , law , anthropology , mathematics
Aim The goals of this study were to develop a partnership causal model and verify the model's fitness for couples undergoing fertility treatment. Methods A purposive sample of 1004 consenting participants (502 couples) undergoing fertility treatment was selected from five fertility clinics across J apan. A mailed self‐administered questionnaire was used to collect data. The partnership causal model was examined with structural equation modeling. Results A total of 565 questionnaires were returned (56.3%) and the number of valid responses was 466 (46.4%). The factor “medical professionals' support (nurses and physicians)” influenced the couples' “partnership” (β = 0.16) and had a direct effect on the men's quality of life ( QOL ) and an indirect effect on the women's QOL (β = 0.20). Couples' partnership had a significant impact on couples' QOL (β = 0.20) and on “satisfaction in their relationship with their partner” (β = 0.48). The multi‐population path analysis revealed that married couples influenced each other's perceptions of their partnership (men, β = 0.84; women, β = 0.88). Additionally, the spouse's partnership influenced both individual's QOL (men, β = 0.77; women, β = 0.77) and the satisfaction with the relationship (men, β = 0.46; women, β = 0.59). The participants' “distress” significantly and negatively affected the participants' QOL . Conclusion The results revealed that for a couple undergoing fertility treatments, a strong partnership maintains their QOL , and this could decrease the couples' distress (particularly in women). Partnership was also related to the variability of “medical professionals' support”.