Relationship Satisfaction Among Infertile Couples: Implications of Gender and Self-Identification

Authors

Arthur L. Greil, Alfred UniversityFollow
Kathleen S. Slauson-Blevins, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
Julia McQuillan, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Michele H. Lowry, Alfred UniversityFollow
Andrea R. Burch, Alfred UniversityFollow
Karina M. Shreffler, Oklahoma State UniversityFollow

Date of this Version

2018

Citation

Published in Journal of Family Issues 39:5 (2018), pp 1304–1325.

DOI: 10.1177/0192513X17699027

Comments

Copyright © 2017 Arthur L. Greil, Kathleen Slauson-Blevins, Julia McQuillan, Michele H. Lowry, Andrea R. Burch, and Karina M. Shreffler. Published by SAGE Publications. Used by permission.

Abstract

We use path analysis to analyze heterosexual couples from the U.S. National Survey of Fertility Barriers, a probability-based sample of women and their male partners. We restrict the sample to couples in which the women are infertile. We estimate a path model of each partner’s relationship satisfaction on indicators of self-identifying as having a fertility problem or not at the individual and couple levels. We find a gender effect: for women, but not men, relationship satisfaction was significantly higher when neither partner self-identified as having a fertility problem. Women’s relationship satisfaction exerted a strong influence on their partners’ relationship satisfaction, but no similar association between men’s relationship satisfaction and their partner’s satisfaction was found. In infertile couples, higher levels of perceived social support are associated with higher levels of relationship satisfaction for women but not for men.