| Relationships among maternal identity centrality, grief, and psychopathology were examined in N=152 women undergoing a first cycle of in vitro fertilization in order to evaluate infertility distress as a non-pathological, normative reaction to loss, and to test a developmental model of infertility linking failure to attain motherhood as a means of maternal identity fulfillment with maladjustment to infertility. Exploratory t-test analyses were conducted that examined differences between infertile groups and non-infertile controls in terms of anxiety, depression, and grief. Exploratory analyses demonstrated significantly lower self-reported anxiety and depression scores for the clinical sample compared to a community sample, and significantly lower self-reported grief scores for the clinical sample compared to a sample of caretakers of loved ones in hospice. Hypothesis testing that predicted interaction effects between grief and maternal identity centrality on the presence of anxiety and depression were not supported. However, a significant positive association was found between grief and maternal identity centrality. While the effect size for this association was small, it nonetheless suggests that a developmental, identity-based variable is a risk factor for the development of grief. Clinical applications of these findings are discussed. |
