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Interviews were conducted with thirty-five Australian and North American women who were fertile, childless and aged between twenty-eight and forty-two. The goal was to investigate how childlessness was experienced and understood by women for whom childbearing was a “live” issue. A key area of concern was whether women described their childlessness as “chosen” and if so, whether that description was a good “fit” with everyday understandings of choice. (For complete abstract open document)

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This qualitative study is about New Zealand couples who, by choice, do not have children. Strong social norms exist for couples to have children, and those who express a desire to do otherwise have been disbelieved, pressured, and stereotyped. Womanhood has continued to be associated with motherhood, and a maternal instinct is expected to drive women to have children. The aim of this research was to add to knowledge and awareness of how childfree people have experienced being stereotyped, pressured and harassed for being childfree. For this research, I conjointly interviewed ten heterosexual, childfree couples residing in the city of Hamilton. Participants self-identified as childfree, and ranged in age from 23 to 56 years old. Five of the couples also participated in a focus group. Participants related the ways in which they perceived that the wider social context played a role in the negative responses they experienced. Participants revealed how they felt less socially valued through: an idealization of parenthood, exclusion from work benefits, and an expectation that women should manage both employment and motherhood. Stereotyping was found to still occur, with participants reporting that they were labelled as selfish, immature, and anti-children. Stereotypes of being destined for loneliness in later life, and of their pets being substitutes for children were common. Some evidence was found in participants' comments that there were elements of truth in stereotypes of the childfree. The negative stereotyping appeared to have little, if any, impact on how participants viewed or felt about themselves. Participants reported feeling harassed by other people's disbelief in their choice, and assumptions, that despite what they said, everybody wanted children. The pressures experienced by participants took various forms, such as persistent questioning, and came from various sources, including siblings and acquaintances. Participants' reports of feeling pressured or harassed seem to reflect minor and fleeting feelings, rather than a continuing concern. How pressuring comments were perceived by the recipient was very context-dependent. Participants tolerated and coped with people's negative responses by various methods, such as confronting, ignoring, and avoiding the topic of children with certain people. I recommend that further research be done, and that work is needed to promote both acceptance of the childfree option, and freedom of women's identification from association with childbearing.

Syftet med vår studie är att undersöka frivilligt barnlösa i en svensk kontext. Med grundad teori som metod har vi satt fokus på individernas egna upplevelser kring livsvalet. Tidigare forskning har främst fokuserat på heterosexuella kvinnor samt frågor som handlar om val kontra omständigheter kring beslutet att inte skaffa barn. Den har även kommit att handla om köns- samt rådande samhällsnormer. Forskning inom området är till största del internationell och det finns endast ett fåtal svenska studier om valet av att inte skaffa barn.Vi valde att intervjua nio stycken respondenter för vår studie, där samtliga uppgav sig vara frivilligt barnlösa. För att utvidga urvalet från att enbart handla om heterosexuella kvinnor valde vi således att undersöka individer med olika kön, sexuell läggning samt civilstånd. I den inledande fasen valde vi, förutom personliga intervjuer, även ett urval av intervjuer som vi fick genom en publicerad artikelserie i Dagens Nyheter. Detta med anledning till att utöka data för en större empirisk grund att bygga en teori på. Efter analys av insamlat material stod våra kategorier klara då vi såg att dessa individer ständigt reflekterar över sitt val, både hur det uppfattas av sig själva samt hur det upplevs av omgivningen. Det visade sig att dessa individer upplever sig som ansvarstagande och frihetstörstande men att valet också leder till upplevelsen av att vara en avvikare. Valet har därmed bidragit till att dessa individer blir ifrågasatta men också att de själva ifrågasätter rådande normer, vilket gav upphov till vår kärnkategori den ständigt reflekterande människan samt våra underkategorier, den reflexiva friheten, det reflexiva valet, det reflexiva ansvaret samt den reflexiva normbrytaren.Den teoretiska anknytning vi använt oss av är Anthony Giddens teori om det moderna samhällets uppkomst och dess dynamik, där han talar om tre element, åtskiljande av tid och rum, urbäddning av sociala institutioner, det rena förhållandet samt institutionell reflexivitet. Den tidigare forskningen vi använt oss av för att sedan relatera till vårt resultat har vi delat in i teman, Frivilligt barnlös – val eller omständigheter, brott mot sociala normer, definition av begreppet samt kroppens språk.

No description available.

Previous research suggests that childfree and childless women are perceived more negatively than mothers. This study investigated attitudes based on parental status, race, and descriptive label. Undergraduate students (N = 386) were randomized to consider targets described as childless, childfree, or mothers/parents. Participants completed a personality characteristic rating scale, the competence and warmth scales of the Stereotype Content Model, an evaluation thermometer, a measure of pronatalism, and a Single Category Implicit Association Test. Childless and childfree women of all races were perceived more negatively than mothers, and women in all parental status groups were ambivalently stereotyped. Implicit attitudes favored parents and childfree targets; however, neither positive nor negative attitudes were demonstrated toward childless targets. Implicit and explicit attitudes were related yet distinct constructs for childless and childfree targets, but were unrelated for parents. With these findings, this study makes a unique contribution to the literature on childlessness and childfreedom.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:37:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Nidia Vailati.pdf: 1369534 bytes, checksum: 62d56e26602a8526c9acec6eeba7edbb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-10-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Family and marriage have undergone many changes throughout history. The traditional family has given place to new family configurations present in today s society. This scenery and also the possibility of, in understanding the movement in the vital cycle of childless couples, identifying other challenges that are specific to the conjugality other than parentality, have circumscribed the object of this paper, namely: to understand the effects of the absence of children in the marriage relationship. The methodological approach adopted is qualitative and the methodological strategy used is the individual and married life story. In order to reach our objective, we have established a few categories for analysis, namely: 1. How the couple was formed; 2. The Consequences. Among all the members of the couples interviewed we have observed statements on the fact that not having any children has made them more egotist, individualist and less tolerant to child noises, beliefs about themselves that may well refer to traits already present in their personality. The fact of being childless also liberates them to develop their individuality further, they are freer to make their choices, and they have a larger autonomy to dedicate themselves to other life projects, such as career and relationship. The conjugal relationship has a functionality that is able to cope with situations as unemployment and change in field of work without jeopardizing the relationship. The couples interviewed present a level of ego differentiation that has enabled them to live their choices, conjugal or other, with a higher degree of clarity and freedom, without suffering the interference of their families of origin / A família e o casamento têm sofrido muitas transformações ao longo da história. A família tradicional tem cedido lugar a novas configurações familiares presentes hoje na sociedade. Em vista deste panorama e também da possibilidade de, ao entender o movimento no ciclo vital de casais sem filhos identificar outros desafios específicos da conjugalidade que a não parentalidade, é que delimitamos o objetivo do presente trabalho, a saber: compreender as repercussões da ausência de filhos na relação conjugal. A abordagem metodológica adotada neste trabalho foi a qualitativa e a estratégia metodológica utilizada foi a da história de vida individual e conjugal. Para respondermos ao nosso objetivo, estabelecemos algumas categorias de análise, a saber: 1. A formação do casal 2. As Conseqüências. Entre todos os membros dos casais entrevistados observamos afirmações de que o fato de não terem filhos deixou-os mais egoístas, individualistas e pouco tolerantes a barulhos de crianças, crenças acerca de si mesmos que podem se referir a características já presentes em sua personalidade. O fato de não terem filhos também os liberta para trabalharem mais a individualidade, mostram mais liberdade para fazerem as suas escolhas, tem uma autonomia maior para se dedicarem a outros projetos de vida, como a carreira e o relacionamento. A relação conjugal tem uma funcionalidade capaz de dar conta de situações como desemprego e mudança de área de trabalho sem trazer prejuízos para a relação. Os casais entrevistados apresentam um nível de diferenciação de ego, que lhes possibilitou viverem com maior clareza e liberdade as suas escolhas tanto conjugais como outras, sem sofrer interferência das famílias de origem

O processo de envelhecimento vem ganhando destaque em pesquisas de diferentes áreas do conhecimento. A cronologização da vida é uma realidade em todas as sociedades, mas não necessariamente representa a ideia subjetiva que o indivíduo tem sobre o próprio envelhecimento. O aumento da expectativa de vida tem resultado em fenômenos como maior número de mulheres que vivem a fase da velhice e que têm dado um novo significado a essa experiência. As mulheres da pesquisa, que hoje são idosas, vivenciaram uma época em que o matrimônio e maternidade eram tidos como sinônimo de felicidade. Contudo, pouco se fala a respeito de mulheres que não seguiram tais padrões. Assim, foram realizadas entrevistas com quatro mulheres idosas solteiras e sem filhos, de idades entre 72 e 91 anos, a fim de verificar suas percepções de envelhecimento. A partir do relato das histórias de vida, verificou-se que, em relação a elas, o imaginário de uma velhice solitária e sem apoio não é válido. A família e a comunidade exercem uma rede de suporte informal que fornece atenção e suporte. O casamento não foi desejado e muitas vezes foi tratado como algo negativo. O trabalho revelou ser um marcador importante e garantia de subsídios na vida adulta e, após a aposentadoria, na velhice. Do ponto de vista simbólico, a Psicologia Analítica contribuiu para o entendimento subjetivo da experiência de envelhecimento. Imagens arquetípicas das deusas gregas auxiliaram na compreensão das diferentes formas de ser mulher em todas as etapas da vida / The aging process has been gaining prominence in research from several different fields of knowledge. The chronologization of life is a reality in all societies, but it does not necessarily represent the subjective idea that the individual has regarding his own aging. The increase in life expectancy has resulted in phenomena such as a higher number of elderly women, who have given new meaning to this experience. They lived through a time when marriage and maternity were synonymous to happiness. However, little is said about those women who did not follow these patterns. Therefore, interviews were conducted with four women, aged 72 to 91, in order to verify which is the perception of aging for these never-married, childless elders. From their life story accounts, one can perceive the notion of a solitary and forsaken old age does not apply to them. Marriage was not desired and was many times seen as something negative. Instead, work was an important livelihood marker both in adult life and in old age, after retirement. From a symbolic standpoint, analytical psychology contributed to the subjective understanding of the aging experience. Archetypical images of Greek goddesses helped comprehend the different ways of being a woman in all stages of life