Infertility Experience in the Life Course and Wellbeing: The Moderating Effect of Developmental Regulation Strategies

Jasmin Passet-Wittig , Federal Institute for Population Research, Germany

This study examines the implications of perceiving infertility for well-being and whether the association changes depending on women’s and men’s use of three major developmental regulation strategies: goal engagement, goal reengagement and goal disengagement. If a life goal such as parenthood is or at least seems blocked, this is a major source of stress. The current study draws from psychological theories of developmental regulation over the life course in order to gain a better understanding of how women and men confronted with goal blockage due to infertility adjust to this challenging situation and on which self-regulation strategies are most promising in this situation. Descriptive as well as multivariate analyses are applied to data from waves 8 & 10 of the German Family Panel pairfam. Analyses show that perceiving infertility is associated with lower life satisfaction and increased stress levels in the general population. Moreover, there is evidence that among those who perceive problems the abilities to engage in a goal and to direct efforts towards (new) other goals (reengagement) are positively associated with life satisfaction. Further analyses will more fully exploit the longitudinal nature of the data and investigate whether goal reengagement and goal disengagement will gain in relevance when women approach the end of their reproductive period.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session 58. Childlessness and parenthood in the life course