Involuntarily Childless Men and the Desire for Fatherhood
Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 29: 1, 56-68, 2011
14 Pages Posted: 17 Sep 2013 Last revised: 1 Mar 2023
Date Written: January 1, 2011
Abstract
Objective: This study aims to explore the experience of childless men and the desire for fatherhood.
Background: There is little research exploring the desire for fatherhood, with most studies concentrating on couples in infertility treatment. Of those, the majority focus on the women’s experience, a factor that may reflect the gender stereotype and cultural identification of childlessness to women.
Methods: A qualitative approach was adopted. A convenience sample of 10 biologically childless men were recruited through the snowball method and interviewed individually. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and transcripts were then analysed using Grounded Theory.
Results: A core category, ‘Lifescape’s of childless men: enduring anticipation and expectation in an uncharted world’, divided into three meta themes: Emotive Forces, Extant Agency, and Life Course. The desire for parenthood appeared to peak in the 30s, gradually reduced, but did not cease. The participants also revealed a sense of ‘outsiderness’ in familial, social, and work relationships.
Conclusion: Involuntarily childless men reported similar experiences to those in, or who have had, infertility treatment. These included a sense of loss, depression, exclusion, isolation, and risk-taking behaviour. Over the life course the men also found ways to adapt and reappraise their beliefs concerning themselves emotionally, psychologically and socially. To help understand this process, gender-role therapy is presented as a possible approach for working with childless men.
Keywords: childless, men, involuntary childlessness, psychosocial, mental health, interviews, qualitative method, grounded theory, masculinity, fatherhood, parenthood, infertility
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