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Article Critique: A Phenomenological Approach
This is an article review on a phenomenological qualitative study. This phenomenological
approach features the lived experiences of 10 Australian women between the ages of 32 to 53
who have chosen to remain childless. There were no identifiable reasons for the women to reject
wanting to bear child other than they chose not to fulfill this role. Doyle et al. (2013) categorizes
the research results under three main themes: the women’s choice, the consequences from the
choice, and the women feeling no instances of regret. The 10 voluntary participants revealed that
their decision to be childless stemmed from varying experiences or observations that made them
want to be childless. The participants also revealed that they have been socially criticized and felt
stigmatized by society for their choice (Doyle et al., 2013). Additionally, the research results
determined that none of the women felt any regret about their decision and did not feel the need
to justify their specific reasons for abstaining from having children.
This study started with a debriefing of how society views women who choose to not bear
children. Research revealed that women who intentionally chose to not bear children are seen as
individuals who have rejected their innate identity as women and therefore are seen as selfish
and unfeminine. The study also disclosed how society, religions, and cultures play a part in
encouraging women to fulfill their natural role to become mothers and to not deviate from the
accepted social norm of motherhood (Doyle et al., 2013). In this regard, most studies have
focused on women with fertility issues rather than females who are intentionally choosing to be
childless. This gap in research led to Doyle et al. (2013) to phenomenologically conduct qualitive
research on understanding a woman’s choice to remain childfree.
The study conducted a phenomenological approach by interviewing the 10 participants.
The audio-recorded interviews consisted of open-ended questions that focused on trying to
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understand the reason for the women’s decision and the consequences of that decision. Themes
were created and identified as the interviews progressed. These themes mapped out a deeper
understanding of what led to the participant’s choice to remain childless (Doyle et al., 2013).
The researchers concluded the study by exhibiting a need for future research to focus on a
more diverse background of women and also to include men who have chosen to remain
childfree. Researchers conveyed the importance of the future participants to be varied in culture,
religion, and race in order to reveal diverse consequences of varied demographics. Limitations to
this study were identified as the researchers found issues with the snowball sampling results. The
researchers felt that this type of sampling limited their demographic to predominately white,
English-speaking, middleclass women (Doyle et al., 2013). Doyle et al. (2013) emphasizes that
more research is needed in this area as society is normalizing women choosing to be childless.
The following information depicts how this study uses the phenomenological approach:
First evidence statement: Creswell and Poth (2018) explain that the purpose of a
phenomenological approach is to examine a phenomenon or an experience. The
phenomenon studied in this research is understanding why some Australian women
intentionally choose to be childfree (Doyle et al., 2013).
Second evidence statement: Interviews are a part of a phenomenological approach. For
this study, data was collected through unstructured audio-recorded interviews provided to
10 female participants (Doyle et al., 2013).
Third evidence statement: Participant’s explanations of their choice to be childless and
the consequences that followed their choice. The researchers addressed bracketing by
identifying three broad themes. These themes included the participant’s experiences and
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processes of making their choice, the effects of their choice, and having no regretful
feelings about their decision no matter the societal repercussions they have experienced
(Doyle et al., 2013).
Fourth evidence statement: The study included background information from each
participant that described what led them to make the decision to remain childfree (Doyle
et al., 2013).
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References
Creswell, J. W. & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among
five approaches (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Doyle, J., Pooley, J. A., & Breen, L. (2013). A phenomenological exploration of the childfree
choice in a sample of Australian women. Journal of Health Psychology, 18(3), 397-407.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105312444647
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