Köksal, Selin;
Goisis, Alice;
(2023)
Loneliness during the Pregnancy-Seeking Process: Exploring the Role of Medically Assisted Reproduction.
Journal of Health and Social Behavior
10.1177/00221465231167847.
(In press).
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Abstract
This study explores whether undergoing medically assisted reproduction (MAR) is associated with experiencing loneliness and whether this association varies by gender and having a live birth. Using two waves of the Generations and Gender Survey (n = 2,725) from countries in Central and Eastern Europe, we estimate the changes in levels of emotional and social loneliness among pregnancy seekers in heterosexual relationships and test if they vary by the mode of conception while controlling for individual sociodemographic characteristics. Individuals who underwent MAR experienced increased levels of social loneliness compared to individuals who were trying to conceive spontaneously. This association is entirely driven by respondents who did not have a live birth between the two observation periods, while the results did not differ by gender. No differences emerged in emotional loneliness. Our findings suggest that increased social loneliness during the MAR process might be attributable to infertility-related stress and stigma.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Loneliness during the Pregnancy-Seeking Process: Exploring the Role of Medically Assisted Reproduction |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1177/00221465231167847 |
| Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1177/00221465231167847 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) 2023. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). |
| Keywords: | Generations and Gender Survey, infertility, loneliness, medically assisted reproduction |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10169527 |
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