The relationship between hope and religious coping in individuals with infertility problems

The main purpose of this study is to determine the hope levels of individuals experiencing infertility (inability to have children) and the extent to which they use religion to cope with the problem. At the same time, one of the main purposes of the study is to reveal the relationship between religious coping and combating infertility by examining the relationships between hope and religious coping. The universe of the study is individuals diagnosed with infertility living in Turkey. The sample is a total of 306 infertile individuals aged 18 and over, consisting of 252 women and 54 men, who were reached through snowball sampling from various provinces of Turkey. Data were obtained by survey technique using the demographic information form prepared by the researcher, Karaca-Kandemir Hope Scale and Religious Coping Scales. IBM SPSS 25 statistical program was used in the analysis of the data. After the normality tests were performed on the data and it was determined that they showed a normal distribution, they were analyzed using percentage, frequency and arithmetic mean, T-test, Anova and Pearson correlation analysis. According to the research findings, the hope and religious coping levels of individuals experiencing infertility are high. While it was observed that male participants, infertile individuals who have children, those who are older, those with higher education levels, and those with higher income levels have higher hope levels; no significant difference was observed in hope levels according to whether or not they have had a fatal pregnancy and the duration of their desire to have a child. It was observed that the participants' religious coping orientations were high, secondary school graduates and those who wanted to have a child for 16 years or more had higher religious coping levels, but there was no significant difference in the scale between gender, having had a fatal pregnancy, age, and income level and religious coping, and participants who had children resorted to more negative religious coping. It was concluded that there was a positive and significant relationship between hope and religious coping.