IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 22, Issue 9, Ver. 14 (September. 2017) PP 88-95 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/0837-2209148895 www.iosrjournals.org 88 | Page Psychological Aspects in Infertility: A Comparative Study * P. R. Jisha 1 , Immanuel Thomas 2 1 Research scholar, Department of Psychology, University of Kerala, 2 Professorand Head, Department of Psychology, University of Kerala. Corresponding Author: P. R. Jisha ABSTRACT: Infertility is defined as the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy even after one year of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. Epidemiological data suggest that approximately 80 million people worldwide are infertile. The present study was conducted to explore the difference between infertile group and a matched control group in various psycho social variables related to the diagnosis of infertility. The study also attempted to identify the most important predictor variables which determine the quality of life of participants. A sample of 400 participants (100 fertile couples and 100 infertile couples) was included in the study. The data obtained were analysed using t-test and step wise regression. Results revealed that there exist significant difference between the two groups in majority of variables. Keywords:Infertility, quality of life, predictors of quality of life. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Submission: 16-09-2017 Date of acceptance: 29-09-2017 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. INTRODUCTION Infertility is doubtless a crisis and an event that causes psychological stress (Leiblum& Green field, 1997; Brovich& Fisher, 1998; Burns & Covington, 1999). Its consequences can be seen at various levels, evidenced by high levels of personal suffering and social repercussions. Infertility and its medical aspects are stress inducing conditions, and its consequences can be seen at various levels. Difficulties in tolerating this psychological, physical, and social suffering may lead to treatment dropout (Olivius, Friden, Borg, & Berg, 2004; Rajkhowa, McConnel, & Thomas, 2006; Smeenk, Verhaak, Stolwijk, Kremer, &Braat, 2004). Infertility is increasing at a dramatic rate across all age groups. It is a complex life crisis, psychologically threatening, and emotionally stressful (Menning, 1980). Being labelled as infertile is devastating to the couple. It can upturn the life of affected individuals completely. One‟s self- esteem, dream for the future, and relationship with others, may all get affected. Childlessness is generally a tragedy and can be a cause of marital upset as well as of personal unhappiness and ill health. A lack of agreement or incongruence between partners over their relationship concerns and the need for parenthood has been reported to be associated with low marital satisfaction and depression (Peterson, Newton, & Rosen, 2003). Health- related quality of life is a multidimensional concept that includes domains related to physical, mental, emotional and social aspects related to a disease or its specific therapeutic approaches(Colwell, Mathias, Pasts, Henning, &Steege, 1998).It can also be a combination of life crisis, identity crisis and a chronic illness (Diamond, Kezur, Meyers, Scharf&Weinshel, 1999).Infertility can be considered as a chronic illness which has adverse effect on mental, communicational, and relationship difficulties (Andrews, Abbey &Halman, 1992). Infertility and its treatment protocols may have negative effects on quality of life of infertile couples (Fekkes et al., 2003). The “Infertility epidemic” results in a variety of psychological issues which calls for the attention of health care and mental health professionals. However, at present, most of the attention is focused on the physical aspects of infertility. Here, an attempt is made to explore the impact of the diagnosis of infertility on the life of the couples. For this purpose, it was decided to study in detail the extent of difference between infertile couples and a matched control group in various indices of adjustment as well as overall quality of life. OBJECTIVES 1 To explore the extent of difference between infertile and a matched control group in various psycho-social variables. 2 To identify the most important predictor variables which determine the quality of life of participants.