UK Wedding News
15/11/2012
The study, from a national survey of nearly 1,200 American women of reproductive age with no children, identified various reasons why women have no children, from medical and situational barriers to delaying pregnancy to choosing to be childfree. It sought to determine if those reasons contributed to different types of concerns about being childless.
"Motherhood is so highly connected with adult femininity in the United States that many women feel that they need to be mothers," said Julia McQuillan, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociologist and the study's lead author. "Yet we also found that there are women who have low or no distress about not being mothers, even if their friends and family want them to have children."
In recent years more U.S. women – estimates suggest about 20 percent – are ending childbearing years without having children. Some can't conceive because of biomedical infertility; others simply delay because of financial concerns, educational demands, job demands, not finding the right partner or other situational barriers. Though all the women were in the same social situation – not being mothers – researchers questioned if the specific reason for not having children shaped how they experienced their situation.
The study found that the reason for having children did matter for distress related to not having children, but only because reasons were associated with how important motherhood is to women's identities. Women who were involuntarily childless because of biomedical reasons put the highest importance on motherhood, and had the highest distress.
Researchers were surprised that pressure from others was not a bigger factor in explaining differences in distress, since many American women face social pressures to have children. But the study showed that influence from others to have children was associated with distress only if the women considered motherhood important. That key factor overrode many others – social pressures, income, age, race and education level – as the most important attribute in judging childlessness concerns.
(GK)
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Child-Free Women Feel Intense Pressure To Have Kids
Women who choose to be permanently childfree perceive more social pressures to become mothers than other women, but feel less distress about not having kids than women who are childless from infertility or other reasons, a new national study shows.The study, from a national survey of nearly 1,200 American women of reproductive age with no children, identified various reasons why women have no children, from medical and situational barriers to delaying pregnancy to choosing to be childfree. It sought to determine if those reasons contributed to different types of concerns about being childless.
"Motherhood is so highly connected with adult femininity in the United States that many women feel that they need to be mothers," said Julia McQuillan, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociologist and the study's lead author. "Yet we also found that there are women who have low or no distress about not being mothers, even if their friends and family want them to have children."
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In recent years more U.S. women – estimates suggest about 20 percent – are ending childbearing years without having children. Some can't conceive because of biomedical infertility; others simply delay because of financial concerns, educational demands, job demands, not finding the right partner or other situational barriers. Though all the women were in the same social situation – not being mothers – researchers questioned if the specific reason for not having children shaped how they experienced their situation.
The study found that the reason for having children did matter for distress related to not having children, but only because reasons were associated with how important motherhood is to women's identities. Women who were involuntarily childless because of biomedical reasons put the highest importance on motherhood, and had the highest distress.
Researchers were surprised that pressure from others was not a bigger factor in explaining differences in distress, since many American women face social pressures to have children. But the study showed that influence from others to have children was associated with distress only if the women considered motherhood important. That key factor overrode many others – social pressures, income, age, race and education level – as the most important attribute in judging childlessness concerns.
(GK)
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