| dc.description.abstract | The current research has twofold aims. First to translate the responses to an irreversible loss of the possibility to get children as a grieving response, on the basis of quantitative data. Secondly to offer empirical support for the presence of chronic grief among people who are involuntary childless. A revision is made of the Rouwvragenlijst (RVL; Boelen, De Keijser & Van den Bout, 2001) to be able to measure the presence of this grief response. In addition, the General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg & Hillier, 1979) is used to distinguish between the measured mourning and commonly mental dysfunctioning. It appeared that there was a grief response of an average level among the involuntary childless female participants (N=65) according to the norms of the original RVL (Boelen et al., 2001). Furthermore, it appeared that there was no difference in the reported levels of grief before, during, and after the medical treatment (i.e. In Vitro Fertilisation, IVF). Concluding, it appeared that involuntary childless women in the current study react with a grief-specific response, with some unexplained overlap with commonly mental dysfunctioning. Moreover it is plausible that involuntary childlessness remains a central question during life, but the presence of this question does not lead to coping problems per se. | |
