Abstract

Perceived social support is positively related to life satisfaction in infertile women. Whereas, the underlying mechanism of this relationship is unclear. The present study aimed to investigate whether self-compassion mediated the relationship of perceived social support with life satisfaction and whether infertility self-efficacy moderated the relationship between perceived social support and self-compassion in infertile women. A total of 290 infertile women in mainland China undergoing treatment completed an online survey assessing perceived social support, life satisfaction, self-compassion, and infertility self-efficacy. The results supported the mediation model that perceived social support was associated with life satisfaction via self-compassion. Besides, infertility self-efficacy moderated the relationship between perceived social support and self-compassion. Specifically, perceived social support displayed a stronger predictive effect on self-compassion when infertile women had higher level of infertility self-efficacy.