Implications Of Childlessness Research Articles

He said/She said; Shaming, Blaming … Reframing: Impacts and Implications of Childlessness on Relationships in an Ancient Text.

Describing the terms of "shaming, blaming, naming, claiming, and reframing" as the possible changing dynamics in some human relationships to achieve a resolution, is a fairly recent insight. Through analyzing a short section of an ancient text, Biblical Antiquities, we show how those matters, although not named as dynamics, were recognized as stages in human interactions millennia ago. They were played out in the announcement and subsequent birth of the biblical judge Samson.

The Socio-Cultural Perception and Implications of Childlessness among Men and Women in an Urban Area, Southwest, Nigeria

This study explores the social and cultural perception and implications of childlessness among men and women living in a diverse cultural urban community, Ekiti state, Nigeria. A total of 600 respondents comprising 175 men and 425 women were selected for interview using multi-stage random sampling technique. A triangulation method of data collection was used (questionnaire, focus-group discussion (FGD) and in-depth interview (IDI)). The statistical analysis was done at the univariate, bivariate and multivariate levels. The result of the study shows that both men and women perceive childlessness in women to be caused by evil spirits, ancestral curses and promiscuity while the cause of childlessness in men is perceived to be the result of psychosexual disorders. Childlessness in this community has severe health and social implications especially for women. Community education on the actual causes of childlessness which will dispel myths about the causes and ways of preventing infertility is recommended.

Experiences of Childlessness in an Indian Context

This article focuses on the gendered experiences of involuntary childlessness and the societal perceptions of the state of being childless. It is based on research aimed at understanding the experience of involuntary childlessness among women and men in the urban middle class of a cosmopolitan city (Vadodara) in India. The study involved a gendered analysis of individuals’ experiences, with specific reference to ideas about parenthood, the importance of children, and the psychosocial implications on self and marital relationships within the context of family and society. The results revealed substantial gender differences. The euphoria surrounding the event of parent-hood, the importance of a child in fostering cohesiveness among family members, and strengthening the marital bond were also examined. The implications of childlessness on self and on marital relations were manifested as feelings of loss, especially during the initial years. Based on the findings, interrelationships are drawn between larger ideologies of Indian culture.

Characteristics of Older Childless Persons and Parents

The prevalence and implications of childlessness in old age are compared across nine major surveys in seven countries: Australia, Finland, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Specifically, the researchers examine indicators of the well-being and resources of childless men and women, compare them to their within-country peers with children, and explore the similarities and differences among childless older adults in different countries. The results show strikingly similar patterns across countries (with the exception of Japan). Childless elders are more likely than parents to live alone or in an institution. Childless never-married women have consistently higher education levels than other groups of women. Among men, marriage rather than parenthood is consistently linked with higher socio-economic status. The results suggest important structural processes that differentially shape the resources and well-being of men and women, childless and parents, over the life course and in old age.

Women of the 1950s and the “Normative” Life Course: The Implications of Childlessness, Fertility Timing, and Marital Status for Psychological Well-Being in Late Midlife

We explore women's psychological well-being in late midlife in relation to childlessness and timing of entry into motherhood. Using two U.S. surveys, Health and Retirement Study (HRS) (1992) and National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) (Sweet, Bumpass, & Call, 1988), we assess the well-being of childless women in their 50s compared to mothers with early, delayed, or normatively timed first births. We focus on the cohorts born between 1928 and 1941, who experienced strong normative pressures during the baby boom with regard to marriage and child-bearing. We find few differences among childless women but lower well-being among early mothers, related to singlehood and poorer socioeconomic status. Unmarried mothers are significantly disadvantaged regardless of maternal timing, controlling for socioeconomic status. Current maternal demands are independently related to well-being and help to explain observed differences in family satisfaction. Overall, childlessness and off-time child-bearing are related to midlife well-being through their link with more proximate factors, particularly current marital status, health, and socioeconomic status.

Childlessness and Family Satisfaction

This study examines the effects of childlessness on family satisfaction among older persons. Respondents 65 years of age and older from four national surveys are selected for the analysis. The results indicate that childlessness has significant negative effects on family satisfaction, especially among those who are 70 years of age and older, and more so among older women than men. This effect is above and beyond sociodemographic characteristics and interaction patterns with relatives, neighbors, and friends. Implications of childlessness and roles of formal and informal support systems for the older persons are discussed.

Time, age, and the life cycle

Psychologists are increasingly interested in the life cycle as the unit for study and in such questions as whether adult development, like child development, is to be perceived as a succession of stages. A stage theory of adult life seems oversimplified for several reasons. First, the timing of life events is becoming less regular, age is losing its customary social meanings, and the trends are toward the fluid life cycle and an age-irrelevant society. Second, the psychological themes and preoccupations reported by young, middle-aged, and older persons are recurrent ones that appear and reappear in new forms and do not follow in a single fixed order. Third, intrapsychic changes occur slowly with age and not in stepwise fashion. These factors may have implications for the psychiatrist who, in helping the patient make a meaningful life story from a life history, deals always with issues of time, timing, and aging.