Infertility, marital satisfaction, and coping strategies among married individuals in Kole Klottey municipality implication for counselling.

Abstract

The study explored infertility, marital satisfaction and coping strategies among married individuals in Korle Klottey Municipality in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. This study is underpinned on the Bio-psycho-social Model, Systemic Transactional Model and Dynamic Goals of Marital Satisfaction as the theoretical framework. The study made use of Mixed Method Sequential Explanatory Design. The study selected two hundred and seventy-one (271) respondents for the quantitative phase while fifteen (15) participants were selected for the qualitative phase. Simple random sampling technique was used to select ten (10) churches while proportional sampling technique was used to select the respondents for the quantitative phase of the study. Also, convenience sampling technique was used to select the participants for the qualitative phase of the study. The study made use of three instruments for data collection. The marital satisfactory Inventory (MSI), and Perception about causes of infertility inventory (PACI) were used to gathered quantitative data while semi-structured interview guide was used to gather data for the qualitative phase. The quantitative data was analyzed by means of mean, percentages and standard deviation. The research hypotheses were tested using Simple Linear Regression and Independent Sample t-test. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data obtained. Findings revealed that; first, infertile married individuals perceive abortion, low sperm count, evil spirit, curses, taboo, sexual disorder as causes of infertility, while they face lots of stigmatization from the public. Also, it became clear that, infertile married individuals encounter infidelity, divorce and separations coupled with physical, emotional and verbal abuse in their marriages. Again, they experienced psychological issues such as stress, depression, trauma, anxiety and suicidal ideation. It became evident that to deal with all the above challenges, married individuals used coping strategies such as self-isolation, avoidance, withdrawal, social support, spiritual activities like prayer, meditation, reading the word of God and attending religious programs. It was recommended that the clergy in connection with counselling psychologist and clinical psychologists in the community should help sensitize and provide counselling for infertile married individuals to help them deal with psychological problems associated with infertility. Finally, Health professional are entreated to create awareness for counselling psychologists to interact with their patients while treating married individuals with infertility conditions in Korle Klottey Municipality.