IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v64y2007i9p1789-1801.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Affect and enacted support in couples undergoing in-vitro fertilization: When providing is better than receiving

Author

Listed:
  • Knoll, Nina
  • Kienle, Rolf
  • Bauer, Katharina
  • Pfüller, Bettina
  • Luszczynska, Aleksandra

Abstract

Although the term social support has positive connotations, research has shown that receiving help may be a double-edged sword. Received support may have no effects or may even be detrimental to recipients' well-being. However, providing support may have beneficial effects for the helper. This paper reports a study of competing and interactive effects of enacted support on affect in couples undergoing assisted reproduction treatments. Sixty-six male/female couples from two German fertility clinics participated in this study. Affect and support were assessed at 3 time points: upon oocyte and sperm collection, after embryo transfer, and following the first pregnancy test (3 weeks after the treatment outcomes were known). Results indicated that depending on the providers' gender, different forms of support provision predicted better affect developments. While women seemed to benefit from providing emotional support, higher positive affect among men was related to their provision of instrumental support. Neither support receipt nor reciprocal support, however, were reliably associated with affect changes. Results partially coincide with predictions from esteem-enhancement theory of supportive exchanges.

Suggested Citation

  • Knoll, Nina & Kienle, Rolf & Bauer, Katharina & Pfüller, Bettina & Luszczynska, Aleksandra, 2007. "Affect and enacted support in couples undergoing in-vitro fertilization: When providing is better than receiving," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(9), pages 1789-1801, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:64:y:2007:i:9:p:1789-1801
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(07)00020-2
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eugster, A. & Vingerhoets, A. J. J. M., 1999. "Psychological aspects of in vitro fertilization: a review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 575-589, March.
    2. Revenson, Tracey A. & Schiaffino, Kathleen M. & Deborah Majerovitz, S. & Gibofsky, Allan, 1991. "Social support as a double-edged sword: The relation of positive and problematic support to depression among rheumatoid arthritis patients," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 807-813, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wei-Fang Lin & Tsui-Shan Li & Lung Hung Chen, 2017. "Sacrifice in a Supportive Marriage: Social Support as a Moderator Buffers the Negative Effects of Sacrifice in Marriage," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 575-589, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lewis, Megan A. & McBride, Colleen M. & Pollak, Kathryn I. & Puleo, Elaine & Butterfield, Rita M. & Emmons, Karen M., 2006. "Understanding health behavior change among couples: An interdependence and communal coping approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(6), pages 1369-1380, March.
    2. Chung-Feng Liu & Yung-Chieh Tsai & Fong-Lin Jang, 2013. "Patients’ Acceptance towards a Web-Based Personal Health Record System: An Empirical Study in Taiwan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-18, October.
    3. Greil, Arthur L. & McQuillan, Julia & Lowry, Michele & Shreffler, Karina M., 2011. "Infertility treatment and fertility-specific distress: A longitudinal analysis of a population-based sample of U.S. women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 87-94, July.
    4. Francesco Tramonti & Franco Giorgi & Annibale Fanali, 2021. "Systems thinking and the biopsychosocial approach: A multilevel framework for patient‐centred care," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 215-230, March.
    5. Min-Ah Lee & Seokho Kim & Eun-Jung Shim, 2013. "Exposure to suicide and suicidality in Korea: Differential effects across men and women?," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 59(3), pages 224-231, May.
    6. Warner, Lisa M. & Schüz, Benjamin & Aiken, Leona & Ziegelmann, Jochen P. & Wurm, Susanne & Tesch-Römer, Clemens & Schwarzer, Ralf, 2013. "Interactive effects of social support and social conflict on medication adherence in multimorbid older adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 23-30.
    7. Abdullahi Fido & Muhammad Ajmal Zahid, 2004. "Coping with Infertility among Kuwaiti Women: Cultural Perspectives," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 50(4), pages 294-300, December.
    8. Kleiboer, Annet M. & Kuijer, Roeline G. & Hox, Joop J. & Jongen, Peter J.H. & Frequin, Stephan T.F.M. & Bensing, Jozien M., 2007. "Daily negative interactions and mood among patients and partners dealing with multiple sclerosis (MS): The moderating effects of emotional support," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 389-400, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:64:y:2007:i:9:p:1789-1801. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.