The overall aim of the proposed research is to examine the effects of disruption to the structure of the life course on women and men in mid- life. It is proposed that this aim be carried out through the study of involuntary childlessness as an event that disrupts the life course. Parenting is viewed as one of the major tasks of adulthood, and is a normative life course transition that is scheduled socially and culturally for the period between early adulthood and mid-life. It has been suggested that parenthood constitutes a pivotal state of the human life cycle, organizing the form and content of the stages that lead up to it, as well as those that succeed it. The central focus of the research will be on the personal experience and interpretation of involuntary childlessness, or infertility, as a disruption to the expected course of life. Of those who seek medical treatment, only one-half will eventually become biological parents. Such disruption may bring about an unscheduled life transition by depriving the individual of a major set of life experiences and disturbing the personal system of understanding the world and one's place in it, thereby striking at a basic level of identity. The proposed 36-month study has three specific aims, to be carried out by interviewing members of the couples, both separately and together, using the individual as the unit of analysis: 1) To examine the personal meaning and experience of unwanted childlessness in relation to continuity and change in mid-life, using primarily qualitative methods and some quantitative measures. 2) To examine infertility as a loss through five related themes: a) changing age norms and delayed childbearing; b) the failure of an anticipated life transition to occur; c) the relationship between parenthood and generativity; d) the relationship between the structure of the life course and gender identity; and e) the redefinition of a social problem as a health problem. 3) To examine the full range of this disruption to the life course over time and by ethnic and class variation, by studying 125 men and 125 women who are marital partners in five groups of respondents (each N=50, total N=250).
| Becker, G; Nachtigall, R D (1994) 'Born to be a mother': the cultural construction of risk in infertility treatment in the U.S. Soc Sci Med 39:507-18 |
| Nachtigall, R D; Becker, G; Wozny, M (1992) The effects of gender-specific diagnosis on men's and women's response to infertility. Fertil Steril 57:113-21 |
