Gender, Perceived Infertility, and Risk of Dissolution among German Couples: A Panel Study

Arthur Greil, Alfred University
Desmond Wallace, Alfred University
Julia McQuillan , University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Jasmin Passet-Wittig, Federal Institute for Population Research, Germany
Martin Bujard, Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB)
Michele Lowry, Alfred University
Kathleen S. Slauson-Blevins, Old Dominion University

Researchers have long recognized that we can learn more about the experiences of married and cohabiting couples by treating the dyad rather than the individual as the unit of analysis. Infertility is a prime example of a dyadic stressor that affects both partners, regardless of which partner has the biological problem. This study explores the following questions: Is perceiving infertility related to partnership stability? Is whether or not partners share a perception related to partnership stability? If partners do not share perceptions, does it matter which partner in a heterosexual relationship perceives infertility? Using 11 waves (2008-2020) of the German pairfam survey, we used Cox Proportional Hazards models to compare the changes in risk of partnership dissolution over time. Once control variables are added, couples where both partners or only the man perceives infertility are not at greater risk of dissolution than couples where neither partner perceives infertility. However, couples in which only the woman perceives infertility are at greater risk of dissolution. Also, once controls are added, couples in which partners share perceptions of infertility are at less risk of dissolution than couples that do not share perceptions. These findings lend some support to the idea that infertility does not necessarily weaken relationships, that the gender of the partner who perceives infertility is associated with partnership stability and that studies of the consequences of perceived infertility for couple relationships are more accurate if they include both partners in couples.

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 Presented in Session 15. Union Dissolution