Parenthood Motivation: Scale Adaptation and Comparing Fertile and Infertile Pregnant Women

Childbearing is more than a biological gift and it is a consequence of deliberate decision making process (Bigner, 2010). Even in the cases of infertility several couples participate in a long and difficult process, and make an investment to satisfy their wish for children through a number of fertilization techniques (Colpin et al., 1998). Therefore, conceiving via assisted reproductive techniques (ART) may have some unique characteristics in terms of motivational factors. In this study, to provide an understanding of the motivation for having children, first Turkish adaptation of the Parenthood Motivation Scale (PMS) was conducted with a sample of pregnant women who conceived naturally or via ART. PMS was developed by Cassidy and Sintrovani (2008), and includes six factors: continuity, nurturance, relationship, identity, social pressure and materialism. As the second aim, the parenthood motivations of fertile and infertile women were compared. This study consisted of 457 pregnant women; 272 (59.5%) of them were spontaneously conceived and 185 (40.5%) of them were conceived via ART. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the Turkish version of PMS confirmed six-factor structure. Internal consistency reliability of the scale was also good (α=.88). When these groups were compared the results revealed that infertile women had significantly higher overall parenthood motivation [F(1,450)=14.59, p<.008, partial η2=.03], and identity [F(1,450)=8.09, p<.008, partial η2=.02] and social pressure [F(1,450)=19.72, p<.008, partial η2=.04] dimensions of parenthood motivation. Since Turkish culture has collectivist structure and the extended family networks were dominant (Kağıtçıbaşı, 2007), the childless women could feel greater social pressure to become a mother (Cassidy & Sintrovani, 2008). Moreover, due to their childlessness they may feel inadequate (Choi et al., 2005) and have a desire to fulfill their “decreased” feminine identity. As a clinical psychologist working on these motivational bases can reduce childless women’s stress and positively influence their pregnancy and motherhood