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Interpersonal dynamics of women in midlife living with involuntary childlessness

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Megumi Fieldsend at Birkbeck, University of London
Megumi Fieldsend
Jonathan Alan Smith at Birkbeck, University of London
Jonathan Alan Smith
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Abstract

Becoming a parent creates a new phase in adult development where the creation of a family brings new meanings and relational dimensions to one’s life. For people who are involuntarily childless, however, the absence of children can have a multifaceted impact on their everyday lives. Although extensive studies concerning childlessness have been conducted, past work has tended to have a clinical focus on women's infertility and fertility treatments and much less attention has been paid to how involuntarily childless people live beyond the phase of trying for a child while contemporaries pursue their lives with children. This study explores the experience of 11 White, heterosexual British women in midlife living with involuntary childlessness. To gain experiential insights, semi-structured interviews were conducted and transcripts analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. Analysis reveals two interrelated key patterns exemplifying intrapersonal and interpersonal features. This paper focuses on the latter. The findings bring to light not only layers of complex relational issues caused by being involuntarily childless, but also different ways of reconstructing meaning in relational reconnections that impacted positively on developing generativity. The paper presents the dynamics unique to each woman and offers micro-level understandings helpful for health professionals, family therapists, life coaches, and researchers looking into childlessness and midlife/adult development.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
1 3
Journal of Adult Development (2022) 29:159–170
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-022-09393-9
Interpersonal dynamics ofwomen inmidlife living withinvoluntary
childlessness
MegumiFieldsend1 · JonathanA.Smith1
Accepted: 18 January 2022 / Published online: 5 February 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022
Abstract
Becoming a parent creates a new phase in adult development where the creation of a family brings new meanings and
relational dimensions to one’s life. For people who are involuntarily childless, however, the absence of children can have
a multifaceted impact on their everyday lives. Although extensive studies concerning childlessness have been conducted,
past work has tended to have a clinical focus on women's infertility and fertility treatments and much less attention has
been paid to how involuntarily childless people live beyond the phase of trying for a child while contemporaries pursue
their lives with children. This study explores the experience of 11 White, heterosexual British women in midlife living with
involuntary childlessness. To gain experiential insights, semi-structured interviews were conducted and transcripts analyzed
using interpretive phenomenological analysis. Analysis reveals two interrelated key patterns exemplifying intrapersonal
and interpersonal features. This paper focuses on the latter. The findings bring to light not only layers of complex relational
issues caused by being involuntarily childless, but also different ways of reconstructing meaning in relational reconnections
that impacted positively on developing generativity. The paper presents the dynamics unique to each woman and offers
micro-level understandings helpful for health professionals, family therapists, life coaches, and researchers looking into
childlessness and midlife/adult development.
Keywords Involuntary childlessness· Interpersonal experiences· Women in midlife· Generative identity· Qualitative
Introduction
For the majority of people, becoming a parent is a natural
development in adulthood where the creation of a family
brings a new phase particularly during midlife. Many people
find personal meaning through parental roles (Marcia, 2002;
Newton & Stewart, 2010) as they establish care and respon-
sibility for their children (Erikson, 1959/1980; McAdams,
2001). Aspeople develop family identities, interpersonal
relationships shift and create “ways of interacting with a
variety of other systems, such as schools, workplaces, local
community, neighbours, friends, in-laws, and extended
family” (Dallos & Draper, 2015, p.8). Midlife, therefore,
is a phase where people engage dynamically in society and
develop self-identity in their relational worlds. While there
are individuals who choose not to have children, for those
who are involuntarily childless, living among contemporar-
ies who are pursuing their lives with children can have a
multifaceted impact.
The advancement of assisted reproductive technologies
(ARTs) has resulted in extensive reproductive studies with
a clinical focus on infertility and fertility treatments, many
of which have used questionnaires and scale-based meas-
ures (Greil, 1997). For example, studies focused on infertile
women who pursed ARTs trying to conceive for the first
time have revealed the high levels of anxiety and depression,
showing the distress caused by fertility treatments (Gameiro
etal., 2012; Massarotti etal., 2019; Patel etal., 2016). How-
ever, a survey on 66 Norwegian women 10years after IVF
treatment (Sundby etal., 2007), reported that the distress
caused by fertility treatment was temporary and lessened as
time went on. In their study, however, 55 of the women had
children through, for example, successful IVF or adoption,
and only 11 remained childless. Such a study may under-
value the experiences of women who underwent IVF but
continue to live with involuntary childlessness.
* Megumi Fieldsend
megfieldsend@gmail.com
1 Department ofPsychological Sciences, Birkbeck University
ofLondon, Malet Street, LondonWC1E7HX, UK
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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