the relationship between self-efficacy and psychological distress among infertile women

Background & aim: infertility, as an important stressful factor in women’s lives, leads to an increase in psychological distress. self-efficacy is one of the determinants, which is considered one of the basic structures of mental health. this study was conducted to measure the relationship between self-efficacy and psychological distress in infertile women. methods: this descriptive correlational study was done on 205 infertile women attended milad infertility research center in mashhad, iran, who were selected via convenience sampling. data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, the tara infertility self-efficacy questionnaire, and the akios infertility distress questionnaire. infertile women who met the inclusion criteria completed the questionnaires in a self-report basis. the data was analyzed with spss 20 using descriptive statistics as well as pearson and spearman correlation coefficient tests. results: the mean score of self-efficacy was moderate (51.70±12.29) and the mean score of infertility-related distress was relatively high (81.38 13± 13.14). there was a direct and significant relationship between self-efficacy and infertilityrelated distress (p = 0.001), i.e., higher self-efficacy was associated with less infertility-related distress. there was no significant relationship between either self-efficacy or infertility-related distress with women’s age, education, length of marriage, duration of infertility, and duration of infertility treatment. conclusion: it is recommended to incorporate self-efficacy promotion programs into the treatment process of infertile couples in order to control the adverse psychological effects of infertility such as infertility distress.