Abstract

Motherhood is one of the key roles in the lives of most women, however, approximately 20% of all pregnancies unfortunately end in miscarriage. The main aim of this paper was to explore the contributions of risk (recurrent miscarriages, time passed since a miscarriage, assessment of the negative impact of miscarriage on everyday life, assessment of distress experienced after miscarriage) and protective factors (various coping strategies, social support received from the partner and the environment, and the quality of marital communication) to the symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress, as well as to life satisfaction in general. A total of 152 participants who have experienced miscarriage (before the 24th week of pregnancy) took part in the study. The average age of the participants was 33 years (SD = 6.73), while the time passed since the last miscarriage was 3.39 years (SD = 4.77) with a range from one week to 28 years. The measuring instruments used included coping with stress, social support, quality of marital communication, life satisfaction, depression, anxiety and stress. The findings indicate that higher gestational age of the fetus at the time of pregnancy loss is negatively associated with life satisfaction, and the more time passes since the miscarriage the fewer are the symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress, with increasing life satisfaction. Furthermore, the negative impact of miscarriage on everyday life is associated with poorer psychological well-being. It was determined through regression analyses that the use of avoidance coping strategies is a significant predictor of psychological well-being (a positive predictor of anxiety, stress and depression, i.e. negative predictor of life satisfaction). Marital communication quality is a negative predictor of depression, anxiety and stress, i.e. positive predictor of life satisfaction. In addition, lower stress levels, along with higher life satisfaction, were observed in participants who perceived more social support from their environment. The subjective health status assessment proved to be a significant predictor of psychological well-being measures. Among other things, this study indicates that the psychological well-being of women who experienced a miscarriage is most at risk immediately after the event, thus creating the need for targeted interventions.