Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
physical and psychological symptoms with age, previous number of
children and social class for men in the experimental group.
Unfortunately comparisons are difficult given the dearth of research
on these novel measures of symptom quantification mentioned
previously. Yet one would have expected a relationship with the
presence of certain physical and psychological symptoms
identifiable with the syndrome and socio-demographic factors
reported in previous studies. The most probable explanation for a
null relationship between symptom severity and distress with these
socio-demographic factors was because of the heterogeneity of the
sample. The sample was diluted because of men of different age
groups, different social classes and numbers of previous children
which does satisfy the requirement for larger samples in order to
detect such correlations. Alternatively the finding could reflect
inconsistencies in previous findings mentioned earlier and which
have been highlighted (Brown, 1983; Clinton, 1986; Strickland,
1987; Bogren, 1989). Nevertheless this finding does replicate those
of Khanobdee et al, (1993) and Thomas and Upton (2000) who also
found no relationship between Couvade symptoms and the number
of previous children and social class.
Limitations of the Study
A number of methodological challenges were evident in this phase
of the study. One methodological problem is the use of a nonprobability
convenience sampling method which can affect
representativeness and limit generalisability of results. This problem
was circumvented by the fact that the those in the experimental
group were of large size and heterogeneous. However, there were a
small number of Chinese men who were difficult to recruit which
may have reflected a low distribution of this ethnic group in the
geographical area where the study was conducted. Some of the
sample in the experimental group were recruited from the Internet
which also poses a number of problems such as issues of
confidentiality relating to disclosure of personal details over the
web, the genuineness of respondents and lack of personal contact
with the study researcher. Another limitation is that those in control
group (n-230) were drawn from staff and student populations from
two educational institutions and were perhaps more educated which
could have accounted for a higher response rate compared to the
experimental group over the comparative time periods.
Another issue is the timing of data collection for the experimental
group which did not include the 2 nd trimester of pregnancy where
symptoms of the Couvade syndrome are reported to temporarily
disappear. The reasons for this omission are twofold. Firstly, men’s
symptoms during this trimester were already explored in the
qualitative phase of the study and had shown diminution or
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