A relação entre a experiência de uma IVG e planeamento familiar, relações íntimas e mecanismos de coping

: um ano depois

Abstract

The present study has the general objective of understanding the impact of an induced abortion after one year of its occurrence, more specifically regarding Family Planning, Intimate Relations, Coping Mechanisms and Social Support. The relation between induced abortion and subsequent life results is one of the most discussed (Casey, 2010), seeming that there is still a gap in the investigation of this theme nationally. Therefore, interviews were conducted, starting from a semi-structured script, to 11 participants that had made an induced abortion one year ago, proceeding afterwards to the semi inductive analysis of the data, following, thereby, a qualitative methodology. From the analysis of the participants speeches, emerged as main results the changes in contraception used by the women after the induced abortion (regarding both the type and how to use it) and the ambivalence towards the impact in Intimate Relations, verifying that this was more dependent of previous problems than the experience of induced abortion itself. At the level of Coping Mechanisms, different strategies used by participants were identified, highlighting that most of them considered to have coped well with the experience, though they also describe different negative emotional reactions in the period after the induced abortion. It is also possible to relate this last aspect to the Social Support, since this emerged as essential in the participants speech, once it was considered to contribute for an appropriate adjustment to the period after the induced abortion. Therefore, it was possible to conclude that the induced abortion constitutes itself as a complex phenomenon, able to cause impact in different areas of life (particularly in family planning), but also being influenced by external factors presents in the life of the women that had experienced induced abortion (highlighting here the relation with the partner, their coping ability and social support).

Date of Award	8 Jul 2013
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Maria Raul Xavier (Supervisor)