Is perceived inability to procreate associated with life satisfaction? Evidence from a German panel study

Abstract

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Self-Perceived Infertility is Not Always Associated with Having Fewer Children: Evidence from German Panel Data

“…Nonetheless—as noted above—there are good reasons to study self-perceived infertility. Self-perception measures are often the only measures available to us in surveys, and self-perceived infertility has been associated with both infertility-related behavior and well-being (Lowry et al, 2020 ; McQuillan et al, 2022 ). Thus, for studies primarily seeking to understand the lived experience and consequences of infertility, it is reasonable to focus on questions about perceptions even if we are not certain that all respondents will interpret them in the same way.…”

“…Lowry et al ( 2020 ) showed that self-perceived infertility explains more of the variance in depressive symptoms than medically defined infertility. Thus, for studies primarily seeking to understand the lived experience and consequences of infertility, it is generally reasonable to rely upon survey questions that indicate whether people perceive themselves to be infertile (Lowry et al, 2020 ; McQuillan et al, 2022 ).…”

Subjective biology: how perceived fecundity influences relationship satisfaction and stability

“…Moreover, respondents who were pregnant or whose partners were pregnant were not asked the perceived fecundity questions, as pregnancy signifies fertility. Their OPF and PPF were treated as definitely yes following McQuillan et al (2022). Similarly, individuals or partners who were sterilized were categorized as definitely no for their respective OPF or PPF.…”

Families formed through assisted reproductive technology: Causes, experiences, and consequences in an international context

“…Most psychosocial research on this issue is cross-sectional, and has focused on clinical samples. The contribution by McQuillan et al (2022, this issue) provides strong evidence of a negative association between the perceived inability to procreate and life satisfaction using German panel data by applying fixed-effects modeling techniques, and thus implicitly controlling for all potential time-constant predictors of an individual’s well-being.…”