P-522 Dyadic Emotion Dysregulation and Infertility Stress in a sample of infertile women and men: an exploratory study

Study question The primary objective of the study is to explore the role of dyadic emotion dysregulation in the perception of infertility-related stress. Summary answer The primary result concerns the distinctive role of the lack of awareness regarding partners' emotions in predicting infertility-stress levels in the relational and social domains. What is known already Infertility represents a significant cause of stress for couples and medically assisted procreation procedures expose to the risk of failure; indeed, the primary reason for stopping treatment following negative results is the emotional burden linked to these outcomes (Bergh et al., 2004). Research showed that individual emotion dysregulation is linked to higher levels of psychological distress in infertile women (Hahn et al., 2021; Hoyle et al., 2022), while the recently conceptualized construct of dyadic emotion dysregulation remains unexplored, despite evidence that emotional closeness between partners contributes to better couple functioning in coping with this condition (Kiełek-Rataj et al., 2020). Study design, size, duration The study design is cross-sectional. A total of 139 individuals, with an average age of 38.42 years (SD 5.06), were recruited, specifically 60 men and 79 women, from a public medically assisted reproduction center, at the beginning of infertility treatments. Participants were enrolled between April 2022 and December 2023. Completing the two administered self-report instruments and the socio-demographic form took approximately 15 minutes for each participant. Participants/materials, setting, methods Participants completed two questionnaires via the EuSurvey platform: the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale–Dyadic (Faccini et al., 2023) for dyadic emotion dysregulation and the Fertility Problem Inventory-Short Form (Zurlo et al., 2017) for infertility-related distress. After descriptive and preliminary analyses on instruments’ reliability, partial correlations explored associations between variables. Regression analyses, controlling for gender and age, examined the predictive role of dyadic emotional awareness and clarity on relationship and social concerns related to infertility. Main results and the role of chance Correlational analyses revealed a significant association between the dimensions of dyadic emotion dysregulation and infertility-stress levels. More specifically, both the lack of awareness and the lack of clarity regarding each other’s emotions in the couple were linked to higher relationship (r = 0.394, p < 0.001; r = 0.340, p < 0.001) and social concerns (r = 0.414, p < 0.001; r = 0.367, p < 0.001) and to lower levels in the subscale referring to the rejection of a childfree lifestyle (r= -0.189, p = 0.027; r= -0.186, p = 0.029). No significant relationships emerged with the FPI-SF dimension describing the need for parenthood. Overall infertility-stress levels were positively associated with the lack of dyadic awareness (r = 0.223, p = 0.009), but not with the lack of dyadic clarity. Step-by-step regression analyses showed that the lack of dyadic awareness predicted both relationship (Beta= 0.287; p = 0.003) and social concerns (Beta= 0.297; p = 0.002) connected to infertility, controlling for gender, age, and the lack of dyadic clarity. The models explained 23.2% and 25.6% of the variance, respectively. The lack of dyadic clarity, instead, was not a significant predictor when the dimension indicating the lack of dyadic emotional awareness was included in the model. Limitations, reasons for caution The main limitations of the study include the lack of longitudinal data and the failure to consider other potentially relevant variables. However, the specific focus is on the role that can be played by dyadic emotion dysregulation processes in relation to the different facets of infertility-stress. Wider implications of the findings Findings suggest that paying attention to the partner’s emotions and perceiving that the partner cares about one’s own emotions is linked to lower levels of infertility stress, both in the couple relationship and in relationships with family and friends, providing valuable insights for psychological support interventions in this area. Trial registration number No