The role of parenting in men's psychosocial development: A longitudinal study of early adulthood infertility and midlife generativity.

Abstract

Of a sample of 343 married men, prospectively studied for four decades, 52 (15.2%) exi~erieneed infertility in their first marriage. Styles of coping with their difficulty in achieving parenthood were considered across three longitudinal phases: initial substitutes, subsequent parenting resolutions, and final marital outcomes. The ability of coping strategies used in earlier phases to predict adaptation during later phases of adjustment was considered, as was the relation between coping strategies and the subsequent achievement ofgenerativity as defined by Erik Erikson. Results indicated that the men's parenting resolutions, marital outcomes, and midlife achievement ofpsychosocial generativity were predictable at statistically significant levels, on the basis of knowledge of their prior infertility coping strategies and parenting outcomes. The findings lend support to the Eriksonian idea that parenting during early adulthood is a crucial but not sufficient prior condition for the midlife achievement of psychosocial generativity.