The IPL Collaborative presented our most recent research findings at the Eastern Psychological Association conference on March 2nd.
In the morning, we presented our talk, “Perceived Incongruent Grief Following Pregnancy Loss.” We presented some of the results from our recent survey study that examined how incongruent grief (as perceived by mothers), influenced relationship satisfaction and commitment.
Our participants included 39 women who had experienced an IPL in the past. Ninety-seven percent of the sample was married. The sample was 37 years old, on average.
Fifty-four percent of the women experienced one IPL, while forty-six percent experienced more than one IPL.
Our sample reported having anywhere from 1 to 19 IPL’s.
Forty-five percent had 0 children prior to first IPL; Fifty-three percent had 1-3 children at the time of their first IPL.
They completed online surveys that measured their own grief as well as perceived grief of their partner (Perinatal Grief Scale adapted from Potvin, Lasker, & Toedter, 1989). They also reported on their levels of satisfaction with their partner and commitment to their relationship (Rusbult, Martz, & Agnew, 1998).
What did we find?
Women perceived that they grieved more intensely than their partners following involuntary pregnancy loss. The more grief they reported, the less satisfied they were with their relationship.
Similarly, the more women perceived that their level of grief differed from their partner, the less satisfied they were with their relationship.
Overall, differential expression of grief and coping of the couple is common and could possibly impact the stability of the relationship. These findings have implications for the clinicians who may work with couples who have experienced IPL.
In the afternoon, we also presented our poster, “Perceived Coping Congruency Following Involuntary Pregnancy Loss.” In the poster, we highlighted some of our findings on the relationship between coping and grief. In addition to the Perinatal Grief Scale, we also used the BriefCOPE (Carver, 1997) in these analyses. The BriefCOPE measures 14 different coping scales. We asked women the extent to which they used each of the coping techniques to cope with their pregnancy loss, and the extent to which they perceived their partner used each coping technique to cope with the pregnancy loss.
When considering the women’s own use of coping, Self-Distraction, Behavioral Disengagement (giving up attempts to cope), Planning, and Self-Blame were all associated with greater grief. While several of these forms of coping are considered to be negative (particularly Behavioral Disengagement and Self-Blame), Planning is considered a more effective form of coping. However, these relationships likely reflect that women who are experiencing more grief need to engage in more coping - any coping - to cope with their grief.
We also examined the extent to which women felt their coping matched their partners’ coping. The results were varied. As expected, when women felt their use of Planning and Self-Blame were similar to their partners’ use of these techniques, they experienced less grief. However, unexpectedly, when women felt their use of Positive Reframing (when you try to think of the event in a more positive way) was similar to their partners’ use, they experienced more grief. To be honest, we were surprised by this finding regarding Positive Reframing, but we had some great conversations about it with others at the poster session. In particular, one conference attendee, Melissa, stated that the finding made sense to her, because she could see how women could be frustrated by their partners’ positive reframing. A woman may need to use positive reframing to cope, but she may not want others to make light of the situation. We’ve been thinking about your insight a lot, Melissa, and plan to explore this idea further.
We would love to hear your thoughts about any of these findings!
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