“Who is gonna pick me up when I fall?”: life stories of older childless men

Hadley, Robin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4254-7648 (2016) “Who is gonna pick me up when I fall?”: life stories of older childless men. In: Loneliness in later life: research, engagement and impact, 3 May 2016, Glamorgan Building, Cardiff University, Wales, United Kingdom. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The implications of the global trend of declining fertility rates and an increasingly ageing population have been extensively reported. Childless older people are missing from much academic research and from policy documents. Drawing on my auto/biographical PhD study, this piece examines how 14 self-defined involuntarily childless men managed non- fatherhood. The findings demonstrated the complex intersections between the men’s attitude to fatherhood, non-fatherhood, and childlessness over the life course. This study countered the stereotype that fatherhood is not important to men and challenges research that reports that men are not affected by the social, emotional, and relational aspects of involuntary childlessness.