Background: Infertility has become a global public health and psychosocial challenge, bringing substantial psychological pressure to affected individuals and couples. To investigate the effects of fertility stress and social support in infertile patients and their spouses, and to examine the mediating role of irrational parenthood cognition. Methods: Using convenience sampling, 425 infertile couples were recruited from a reproductive center in Zhejiang Province from January 2023 to June 2024. Participants completed questionnaires including general demographic information, the Irrational Parenthood Cognition Scale, and the Fertility Problem Inventory (FPI) and the Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired-samples t-tests, Harman’s single-factor test, Pearson correlation analysis, and the Actor-Partner Interdependence Mediation Model (APIMeM). Results: In infertile couples, social support was negatively correlated with both irrational parenthood cognition and fertility stress (p < 0.01), whereas irrational parenthood cognition was positively correlated with fertility stress (p < 0.01). For actor effects, wives’ social support influenced their own fertility stress through their own, but not their husbands’, irrational parenthood cognition, whereas husbands’ social support influenced their own fertility stress through both their own and their wives’ irrational parenthood cognition. For partner effects, husbands’ social support influenced wives’ fertility stress through the wives, but not their own, irrational parenthood cognition, whereas wives’ social support influenced husbands’ fertility stress through both their own and their husbands’ irrational parenthood cognition. Conclusions: Clinical interventions should address infertile patients and their spouses as an integrated unit, targeting both fertility cognition and social support to alleviate fertility stress.
Lyu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.