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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Is Perceived Inability To Procreate Associated With Life Satisfaction? Evidence From A German Panel Study, Julia Mcquillan, Jasmin Passet-Wittig, Arthur L. Greil, Martin Bujard Jan 2022

Is Perceived Inability To Procreate Associated With Life Satisfaction? Evidence From A German Panel Study, Julia Mcquillan, Jasmin Passet-Wittig, Arthur L. Greil, Martin Bujard

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Most studies of the psychosocial consequences of infertility have focused on those who seek medical treatment, leaving a research gap regarding the psychosocial consequences of perceived inability to procreate in the general population. Moreover, most studies are cross-sectional and the results are thus likely affected by omitted variable bias. Inspired by aspects of the Theory of Conjunctural Action, this study analysed 10 waves of data from the German Family Panel (pairfam) for women and men using fixed effects panel regression and including time-varying control variables suggested by theory and research. This study found that both women and men experienced lower …


Is Perception Of Inability To Procreate A Temporal Phenomenon? A Longitudinal Exploration Of Changes And Determinants Among Women And Men Of Reproductive Age In Germany, Jasmin Passet-Wittig, Martin Bujard, Julia Mcquillan, Arthur L. Greil Jan 2020

Is Perception Of Inability To Procreate A Temporal Phenomenon? A Longitudinal Exploration Of Changes And Determinants Among Women And Men Of Reproductive Age In Germany, Jasmin Passet-Wittig, Martin Bujard, Julia Mcquillan, Arthur L. Greil

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Continued postponement of births and increasing use of reproductive medicine enhance the relevance of infertility and related perceptions for fertility research. Fertility researchers tend to assume that an existing perception of inability to procreate is a stable trait among persons of reproductive age. This assumption is questionable from a life course perspective and has not been thoroughly investigated. Therefore we investigate the prevalence, stability, and correlates of perceived inability to procreate. We apply between-within logit models to annual panel data (2008-2015) to study variation in perceived inability to procreate within individuals over time and between individuals. We find that approximately …


Fertility And Infertility: Toward An Integrative Research Agenda, Katherine M. Johnson, Arthur L. Greil, Karina M. Shreffler, Julia Mcquillan Jan 2018

Fertility And Infertility: Toward An Integrative Research Agenda, Katherine M. Johnson, Arthur L. Greil, Karina M. Shreffler, Julia Mcquillan

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

In this article, we show that social science research on fertility and infertility consists of largely separate research traditions, despite shared interest in pregnancies and births (or lack thereof). We describe four ways these two traditions differ: (1) publication trajectories and outlets, (2) fields of study and major theoretical frameworks, (3) degree of attention to the other topic, and (4) language and definitions used. We then discuss why future integration of these bodies of research would be beneficial, outline potential steps toward rapprochement, and provide common areas of dialogue that could facilitate and enrich these bodies of research. We offer …


“Just Because A Doctor Says Something, Doesn’T Mean That [It] Will Happen”: Self-Perception As Having A Fertility Problem Among Infertility Patients, Ophra Leyser-Whalen, Arthur L. Greil, Julia Mcquillan, Katherine M. Johnson Jan 2018

“Just Because A Doctor Says Something, Doesn’T Mean That [It] Will Happen”: Self-Perception As Having A Fertility Problem Among Infertility Patients, Ophra Leyser-Whalen, Arthur L. Greil, Julia Mcquillan, Katherine M. Johnson

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Only some individuals who have the medically defined condition ‘infertility’ adopt a self-definition as having a fertility problem, which has implications for social and behavioral responses, yet there is no clear consensus on why some people and not others adopt a medical label. We use interview data from 28 women and men who sought medical infertility treatment to understand variations in self-identification. Results highlight the importance of identity disruption for understanding the dialectical relationship between medical contact and self-identification, as well as how diagnosis acts both as a category and a process. Simultaneously integrating new medical knowledge from testing and …


Relationship Satisfaction Among Infertile Couples: Implications Of Gender And Self-Identification, Arthur L. Greil, Kathleen S. Slauson-Blevins, Julia Mcquillan, Michele H. Lowry, Andrea R. Burch, Karina M. Shreffler Jan 2018

Relationship Satisfaction Among Infertile Couples: Implications Of Gender And Self-Identification, Arthur L. Greil, Kathleen S. Slauson-Blevins, Julia Mcquillan, Michele H. Lowry, Andrea R. Burch, Karina M. Shreffler

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

We use path analysis to analyze heterosexual couples from the U.S. National Survey of Fertility Barriers, a probability-based sample of women and their male partners. We restrict the sample to couples in which the women are infertile. We estimate a path model of each partner’s relationship satisfaction on indicators of self-identifying as having a fertility problem or not at the individual and couple levels. We find a gender effect: for women, but not men, relationship satisfaction was significantly higher when neither partner self-identified as having a fertility problem. Women’s relationship satisfaction exerted a strong influence on their partners’ relationship satisfaction, …


Does Fertility-Specific Distress Vary By Race/Ethnicity Among A Probability Sample Of Women In The United States?, Arthur L. Greil, Julia Mcquillan, Delida Sanchez Feb 2016

Does Fertility-Specific Distress Vary By Race/Ethnicity Among A Probability Sample Of Women In The United States?, Arthur L. Greil, Julia Mcquillan, Delida Sanchez

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This study explored whether fertility-specific distress varied by race/ethnicity among a nationally representative sample of US women. Participants were 2363 White (n = 1266), Black (n = 569), Hispanic (n = 453), and Asian (n = 51) women who participated in the National Survey of Fertility Barriers. Participants were given the Fertility-Specific Distress Scale and assessed for strength of pregnancy intent, primary versus secondary infertility, and socioeconomic hardship. Black women reported lower levels of fertility-specific distress than White women, but these were fully mediated by the strength of pregnancy intentions. Primary versus secondary infertility and economic hardship were not associated …


Does The Reason Matter? Variations In Childlessness Concerns Among U.S. Women, Julia Mcquillan, Arthur L. Greil, Patricia Wonch Hill, Kari C. Gentzler, John D. Hathcoat Jan 2012

Does The Reason Matter? Variations In Childlessness Concerns Among U.S. Women, Julia Mcquillan, Arthur L. Greil, Patricia Wonch Hill, Kari C. Gentzler, John D. Hathcoat

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Does the reason why women have no children matter with regard to level of childlessness concerns? Reasons include biomedical barriers, situational barriers, delaying motherhood, and choosing to be childfree. The concept of ‘‘childlessness concerns’’ captures the idea that holidays and family gatherings are difficult because of not having children or feeling left out or sad that others have children. Life course and identity theories guided the structural equation model analyses of a representative sample of 1,180 U.S. women without children from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers. The results indicated that women with the least control over pregnancy, those with …


Infertility Help Seeking And Social Support: Do Conventional Theories Explain Internet Behaviors And Outcomes, Kathleen S. Slauson-Blevins Apr 2011

Infertility Help Seeking And Social Support: Do Conventional Theories Explain Internet Behaviors And Outcomes, Kathleen S. Slauson-Blevins

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation uses data from the National Survey of Fertility Barriers (NSFB), a nationally representative sample, to assess factors associated with face-to-face and internet help seeking (study 1) and perceived social support (study 2). In study one, I examine whether the General Help Seeking Model, a theory that has been used to explain in-person help seeking, generalizes to internet help seeking. I assess four types of help seeking: (1) no help seeking, (2) only internet help seeking, (3)only medical help seeking, and (4) both online and medical help seeking. Results suggest that online help seeking is differentiated from in person …


Are Prior Pregnancy Outcomes Relevant For Models Of Fertility-Specific Distress Or Infertility Helpseeking?, Arthur L. Greil, Katherine M. Johnson, Julia Mcquillan, Naomi L Lacy Jan 2011

Are Prior Pregnancy Outcomes Relevant For Models Of Fertility-Specific Distress Or Infertility Helpseeking?, Arthur L. Greil, Katherine M. Johnson, Julia Mcquillan, Naomi L Lacy

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Women with prior pregnancy but no live birth are inconsistently termed as either ‘primary infertile’ or ‘secondary infertile’ in psychosocial studies of infertile women. The goal of this study was to discover whether infertile women who had experienced pregnancies but no live births were more similar in attitudes and behavior to infertile women who had not experienced pregnancies or to those who had live births. We used the National Survey of Fertility Barriers (NSFB), which contains self-reported data from a probability-based sample of US women aged between 25 and 45, to accomplish our goal. In this cross-sectional analysis, infertile women …