The Effectiveness of Motivational Interviewing on Self-Compassion, Social Desirability and Emotional Reactivity in Infertile Women

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: Infertile women face many cognitive, social, and emotional problems in their lives. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of determine the effectiveness of motivational interviewing on self-compassion, social desirability and emotional reactivity in infertile women.

Methodology: This research was a quasi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test and two-month follow-up design with a control group. The population of the present study was all infertile women referred to Imam Ali (AS) Hospital of Zahedan city in the spring of 2025 year. The study sample was 40 people who were selected by purposive sampling and randomly assigned to two equal groups (20 people in each group). The experimental group trained 8 sessions of 75 minute by motivational interviewing method (two sessions per week for one month), and the control group remained on the waiting list for training. The research instruments included the Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003), Social Desirability Scale (Crowne and Marlowe, 1960) and Emotional Reactivity Scale (Nock et al., 2008). The data of this study were analyzed using methods of chi-square, analysis of variance with repeated measures and Bonferroni post hoc test in SPSS-27 software.

Findings: The results of this research showed that there was a significant difference between infertile women of the experimental and control groups in all three variables of self-compassion, social desirability and emotional reactivity. In the other words, motivational interviewing increased self-compassion and social desirability and decreased emotional reactivity in infertile women (P<0.001).

Conclusion: According to the results of this study, counselors and psychologists can use motivational interviewing along with other educational methods to improve psychological characteristics, including increasing self-compassion and social desirability, and reducing emotional reactivity in infertile women.