The level of depression in women with difficult procreation and the style of coping with stress and psychological sex

Abstract

The main aim of the study presented in the paper was to track possible relations between coping styles and depression symptoms in women with different identification of their sex roles who meet the stressor of infertility or fertility problem. The set of three tools was used to meet this goal: (1) Beck Depression Inventory, (2) Inventory for Psychological Gender Evaluation and (3) Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations. 65 women under the fertility treatment took part in the study and filled out questionnaires. The results show that women who revealed androgenic characteristics used coping styles focused on the problem and were oriented on seeking social contacts more often than women strongly identifying themselves with traditional sex roles. Women who revealed ‘womanly’ attitude toward their sex roles used more often emotion focused coping styles. The level of depression symptoms was higher in ‘womanly’ women when comparing with ‘androgenic’ females. Several psychological factors contributed to the level of depression in women under infertility treatment. First, using strategies focused on the emotions increased the symptoms prevalence. Focus on the problem and seeking social contacts buffered depression symptoms. Distraction coping i.e. seeking substitute activity also contributed to increased level of depression. The regression results explained 34% of received data.