| Experiences of infertility and fertility treatment are associated with emotional distress, particularly among women. Despite this distress, formal psychosocial interventions are underutilized. Recently, Internet-mediated support has become widely used among medical populations, including women with infertility. Internet-based support reflects advantages similar to in-person support group modalities and bibliotherapies while offering unique features that may confer additional benefits. Concerns have been raised regarding potential negative effects of Internet-based support. However, emerging research suggests that such support is associated with empowerment and improved quality of life among medical populations. Little is known regarding its impact among women with infertility.;The current study explored the relationship of empowering processes and empowering outcomes of participation in online support communities to fertility quality of life when accounting for face-to-face social support, negative social interactions, and depression. Additionally, this study examined differences between active and passive participants on fertility quality of life, social support, negative social interactions, and depression. A sample of 138 women recruited from infertility-related online support communities completed a cross-sectional, online survey, along with 80 partial completers. Self-report measures included demographics; empowering processes and empowering outcomes of participation in Internet-mediated support; the Fertility Quality of Life Scale; the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List; the Unsupportive Social Interactions Inventory; and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies -- Depression Scale. Primary hypotheses predicted positive associations of empowering processes and empowering outcomes with fertility quality of life when controlling for the effects of social support, unsupportive social interactions, and depression. Secondary hypotheses predicted differences between active and passive participants on psychosocial outcomes of fertility quality of life, social support, unsupportive social interactions, and depression, as well as empowering processes and empowering outcomes. Data were analyzed using multiple linear regressions and independent samples t-tests. Results indicated that the empowering process of Sharing Experiences, the empowering outcome of Enhanced Social Well-Being, unsupportive social interactions, and depression were inversely associated with fertility quality of life. Results also demonstrated significantly higher scores on all empowering process and outcome variables among active compared to passive participants but revealed no differences on other psychosocial variables. Implications and future directions are discussed. |
