Suppressing and Priming the Motivation for Motherhood

Abstract

In study 1, 148 married and unmarried childless Israeli women (mean age=25) indicated how often they think about having a child, their desired age for having a child, and justified not being mothers, with or without being primed with photographs of babies. Priming and marital status impacted the motivation for motherhood and the justifications for not being mothers. In study 2, the same procedure was used with 137 unmarried, childless Israeli women (mean age=24) whose gender role orientation was assessed. The impact of gender role orientation and priming on the motivation for motherhood and the justifications for not being mothers were complex, with femininity playing a much greater role than masculinity. The findings were discussed in the context of the myth of motherhood and its influence on the lives of women.

Development and Validation of the Pregnancy and Infant Orientation Questionnaire

“…The older non-HET sample might plausibly be expected to be more responsive to the “ticking of the biological clock” than the mostly college-age sample of HET women. For instance, in their study of university-based childless women, Boucai and Karniol (2008) found that the older women wanted to have a child sooner than the younger women. In our study, the age factor was statistically controlled for in the group comparisons, but perhaps not fully, given the limited overlap in age between the two groups.…”

“…Both social/cultural and biological influences are also likely to affect the development of pregnancy and infant orientation in humans. The role of social-cultural factors is well-illustrated by the findings and background literature presented by Boucai and Karniol (2008). The contribution of biological factors is supported by clinical case observations of reduced maternal interests in girls and women with a history of exposure to prenatal androgen excess due to congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH; Meyer-Bahlburg, 1999).…”

“…107-108; Melson & Fogel, 1982). Motherhood, and the potential for motherhood, plays a critical role in women’s psychological lives (Boucai & Karniol, 2008). A qualitative study of women who had undergone premenopausal hysterectomy emphasized the importance of experiencing menstruation and having ovaries, a uterus, and the pregnancy potential for the identity of many women (Elson, 2002, 2003), and infertility can constitute significant stress (Gibson & Myers, 2002; Greil, 1997).…”

“…Most assessment instruments in this area for adolescents and adults have been developed for the general population and briefly assess overall attitudes and motivations for or against parenthood (e.g., Bell, Bancroft, & Philip, 1985; Boucai & Karniol, 2008; Gimenez Villarejo, 2004; Lang, 1992; Langdridge, Connolly, & Sheeran, 2000; Mathes, 2005; Rholes, Simpson, Blakely, Lanigan, & Allen, 1997; for older measures, see Beere, 1990), maternal responsiveness to their own infants (Drake, Humenick, Amankwaa, Younger, & Roux, 2007; Fowles & Horowitz, 2006; Lecuyer-Maus, 2000; Shin, Park, & Kim, 2006; Swain, Lorberbaum, Kose, & Strathearn, 2007), or parenting practices with older children (Barry, Frick, & Grafeman, 2008; Belsky & Jaffee, 2006). …”

“…Moreover, Phillips and Over (1995) documented markedly decreased intensity of the wish to become a mother for bisexual women and even more so for lesbians in comparison to HET women. Boucai and Karniol (2008) showed that motivation for motherhood was associated with femininity, which is lower in homosexual women as a group (Lippa 2002, 2008; Meyer-Bahlburg et al, 2008). For the purposes of scale validation, we took advantage of an opportunity to obtain access to a clinical population of GDYS individuals, who represent the extreme degree of gender atypicality (Zucker & Bradley, 1995).…”