La scelta di non avere figli: il ruolo dei legami di attaccamento alla famiglia di origine e al partner

The current work elucidate the theoretical and methodological aspects of a research project aimed to explore current parenthood, in particular the choice of remaining childless and its relational and intergenerational origins. An overview of social, demographic and psychosocial studies suggested an interpretative model of the phenomenon that considers the different pathways leading to parenthood as the outcome of different opportunities to develop caregiving abilities within the network of family relations. According to this framework, the aim of this study is to investigate, following multiple levels of representation, how the quality of the original family ties and their elaboration in early adulthood and the quality of couple-relationship influence the development of caregiving abilities and, thus, the maturation of the choice of being parents. The incidence of these multi-level variables has been investigated in a large group of married/cohabiting couples, containing couples without children (188 individuals) and pregnant couples (208 individuals), and a large group of young adults, containing currently studying (214) and employed young adult (213). It is argued that, from a shared socio-economic and cultural condition, affective and attachment experiences within the original family and in the couple-relationship can influence the choice of being or not being parents, suggesting that young adults and couples may be exposed to a great vulnerability in front of the changes that parenthood involve. The measures employed focused on the perception and the orientation of affective experience with the parents and with the partner and include a large set of self-report instruments and a smaller set of interviews which allowed to deepen and verify the data at different level of representation.