Development of the Coping Scale for Infertile Couples

Infertility treatment involves more complicated, uncomfortable, and humbling medical procedures for women, so the coping strategies used by wives may differ from those used by husbands. The purpose of this study was to develop and test a Coping Scale for Infertile Couples that would be sensitive to the differences in gender. What couples actually do to cope with infertility and whether these strategies are different between couples were also addressed. A total of 138 infertile couples participated in this study. The Coping Scale for Infertile Couples was administered with the Infertility Questionnaire, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Jalowiec Coping Scale as measures of concurrent validity. Factor analysis extracted 4 subscales from the Coping Scale for Infertile Couples. Test-retest and internal consistency reliability were high. Paired t tests revealed that wives used the "Increasing space and Sharing the burden" strategies to a greater degree than their husbands. Husbands used the "Being the best" strategy to a greater degree than the wives. A significant correlation with distress, stress, and coping measures provided evidence of concurrent validity. Preliminary results suggest that this measure has good reliability and validity, which can contribute toward the elucidation of coping strategies used by infertile couples and assist in planning effective interventions.