An Interpretative phenomenological analysis of meaning-making of infertility among infertile Turkish women: developing and testing the effectiveness of an online intervention program in meaning-making

Download
2018
Şimşek Alphan, Yeliz
Infertility stands as a stressful life event affecting many individuals. The current study adopts a mixed-method design including a qualitative study followed by a quantitative study. The first study aimed to understand the subjective meaning of infertility and meaning making among infertile Turkish women by conducting an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Four themes were identified including ‘The sense of ideal woman: Self-sacrificing mother’, ‘The sense of infertility: The incomplete woman’, ‘Efforts on meaning making’ and finally ‘Overcompensation of Incompleteness: Self-sacrificing ‘mother-to-be’. The themes were used in developing an online intervention for women with infertility based on the principals of Meaning-Centered Therapy by Wong (2010). An 8-weeks online group intervention program focusing on improving the positive meaning making was implemented to 27 infertile women. Their results on Presence of and Searching for Meaning, Post-Traumatic Growth, Stress Appraisal Measure (measuring Threat, Challenge, Controllable by Self, Controllable by Others, and Uncontrollable by Anyone in a specific stressful event) as well as depression, anxiety, hopelessness, positive and negative affect and finally infertility self-efficacy were compared with 24 women in the control group. In the pre-test post-test control group study, as expected, the online intervention was found to be effective in increasing presence of meaning and the tendency to evaluate infertility as a challenge, controllable by self and controllable by others in infertile women. The other results as well as the impact and implications of the study were discussed

Suggestions

How do women experience fibromyalgia in family context?
Yoğan, Felek; Bozo Özen, Özlem; Department of Psychology (2017)
The present study aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of how women experience fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) in the family context. There were two main research questions in the study; (1) how do married female fibromyalgia patients with child(ren) experience pain, and (2) what is the association between these patients’ pain experience and their family relationships? To answer these research questions, semi-structured interviews were conducted with six married women with children that were officially diagn...
A comparative study of family functioning processes of families with a child with autism in Turkey and in the United States
Çelimli, Şeniz; Fışıloğlu, Hürol; Department of Psychology (2009)
This study aimed to investigate the differences in parenting stress, coping ways, and family functioning variables of families with a preschool-aged child with autism from Turkey and from the United States (U.S.) and to find out how the factors of parenting stress, coping ways, and social support predict the adaptability of the families in terms of cohesion and flexibility in families of children with autism from Turkey and from the U.S. For this study, only the mothers of a child with autism aged between t...
The differentiation of emotions of guilt and shame in the adolescents with maternal breast cancer
Kaçmaz, Lale Belgü; Gençöz, Faruk; Department of Psychology (2011)
This study aimed at revealing and differentiating the emotions of shame and guilt felt by the adolescents with maternal cancer. In order to reveal and differentiate these emotions, a sentence completion task and interviews were used. The study was conducted on 10 adolescents in age range of 16-20. With each participant, four private sessions were made. In the first session, the participant’s knowledge of his/her mother’s condition was evaluated through the Sentence Completion Test. In the second session, Pa...
An internally validated prediction model for critical COVID-19 infection and intensive care unit admission in symptomatic pregnant women
Kalafat, Erkan; et. al. (2021-09-25)
Background: Pregnant women are at an increased risk of mortality and morbidity owing to COVID-19. Many studies have reported on the association of COVID-19 with pregnancy-specific adverse outcomes, but prediction models utilizing large cohorts of pregnant women are still lacking for estimating the risk of maternal morbidity and other adverse events. Objective The main aim of this study was to develop a prediction model to quantify the risk of progression to critical COVID-19 and intensive care unit admissi...
Childhood cancer and its effect on the marital adjustment of the parents
Kocaoğlan, Sibel; Fışıloğlu, Hürol; Department of Psychology (2003)
The main purpose of the study was to investigate whether illness-related factors predict marital adjustment in parents of children with cancer. The sample consisted of parents of hospitalized children, parents of children receiving outpatient treatment, and parents who brought their children for their routine controls ith a total of 105 mothers and fathers. The data were gathered by administering the Dyadic Adjustment Scale and Demographic, Illness- and Caregiver- Related Information form. Findings suggeste...
Citation Formats
Y. Şimşek Alphan, “An Interpretative phenomenological analysis of meaning-making of infertility among infertile Turkish women: developing and testing the effectiveness of an online intervention program in meaning-making,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2018.