Life without fatherhood: the biographical narratives of older involuntarily childless men

Hadley, Robin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4254-7648 (2016) Life without fatherhood: the biographical narratives of older involuntarily childless men. In: Aging and Society Sixth Interdisciplinary Conference: Special Focus: Aging, Life-course and Social Change, 6 October 2016 - 7 October 2016, Linköping University, Norrköping, Sweden. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The childless are absent from much gerontological research. This presentation reports the impact childlessness has on the identity, relationships, and social networks of older men. Childless men are, compared to women, absent from gerontological, masculinities, psychological, reproductive, and sociological research. The failure to fulfil the status of parenthood may lead to a complex form of bereavement and is significant challenge to individual and cultural identity. This PhD qualitative study used a framework drawn from the biographical, feminist, gerontological, and life course approaches. This study challenges the stereotype that the social, emotional and relational aspects of involuntary childlessness do not affect men. The men’s attitude to fatherhood changed with age and centred on the theme of the ‘social clock’ that revealed the synergy between an individual and societal morès surrounding parenthood. The participants’ narratives demonstrated the diverse elements that affected the men’s experience of involuntary childlessness: upbringing, economics, and timing of events, interpersonal skills, sexual orientation, partner selection, relationship formation and dissolution, bereavement, and the assumption of fertility. The importance of relationship quality was demonstrated in the dynamics of the social networks of those with and without partners. Awareness of ‘outsiderness’ and a fear of being viewed a paedophile were widely reported.