Delayed First-Time Parenthood: a Small Sample Phenomenological Study.

Abstract

This dissertation has three purposes: to delineate the salient experiences of late first-time parenthood; to join psychology and phenomenological philosophy to form a foundation for human research; and to develop a method of research following upon the implications of phenomenological concepts and approaches. Interviews were carried out with eight individuals, five women and three men, all in the process of becoming parents for the first time. Attention was given to what the informants said and their introspection was encouraged, the information obtained being of the naturalistic-phenomenological-type. Reflections from the published book, With Child, by Phyllis Chesler, were also used as well as experiences of the researcher and her husb and . All of the informants were between the ages of twenty-nine and thirty-seven. Three major themes were evident in their descriptions: the planned quality of their lives; the impact of age; and career as the focal point of gender inequalities. The social reality within which these themes were lived was also explored. There was mention of how they dealt with major life themes of love and death; their use of experience; changes in structuring of their social world, perspectives of time and self-concept and identity. The timing of parenthood is significant and gives rise to qualitatively different experiences dependent on age and social situation. These individuals, nearing mid-life, demonstrated several age-specific characteristics, such as their sense of utilizing self to reach their goals, their ability to process new information in the light of past experience and their perspective of time as time-left-to conceive rather than of time from their birth. The desire of the women to measure themselves in terms of a dual generativity--both as career women and mothers was striking and seems to be indicative of social expectations for the modern woman.