Examining the impact of infertility-related stress on marital satisfaction and well-being within the actor-partner model framework: The role of interpersonal emotion regulation and dyadic coping as a couple

The fundamental objective of this doctoral thesis is to explore the effects of infertility-induced stress on marital satisfaction and psychological well-being. The research aims to address the mediating roles of interpersonal emotion regulation and coping as a couple in this interaction. The study follows a three-phase methodology: scale adaptation, quantitative, and qualitative phases. During the scale adaptation phase, the Interpersonal Regulation Interaction Scale was adapted to Turkish and its psychometric properties were assessed. The quantitative phase employed the Actor-Partner Interaction Model on couples to analyze the mediating effects of interpersonal emotion regulation and coping as a couple on the impacts of infertility stress on marital satisfaction and psychological well-being. The qualitative phase involved in-depth interviews with couples undergoing infertility treatment, focusing on interpreting these experiences. The findings reveal that infertility stress significantly affects marital satisfaction and psychological well-being. Interpersonal emotion regulation and coping as a couple play crucial mediating roles in the effects of this stress on marriage and well-being. The qualitative findings detailed the challenges couples face in coping with infertility and the emotional dynamics within this process. The study highlights the impact of infertility stress on couples' marital satisfaction and psychological well-being and underscores the critical importance of interpersonal emotion regulation and coping as a couple in this context.