New scholarships for parenthood research
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Two new PhD scholarships investigating first-time parenthood will offer candidates the opportunity for overseas travel plus the chance to work with leading researchers.
The Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project will see Dr Cathy McMahon from the Department of Psychology at Macquarie University lead a team of researchers from Australia and overseas. The team includes Dr Frances Gibson (Institute of Early Childhood at Macquarie), Dr Jane Fisher (University of Melbourne), Dr Jacky Boivin (Cardiff University) and industry partners IVF Australia and Melbourne IVF.
McMahon and the team will assess the impact of parental age on physical and psychological wellbeing as well as social adjustment during the transition to parenthood.
The project
"As everyone is aware, there is a trend for people to have babies later, and there is a fair bit of mythology about older parents," says McMahon. "What we want to do is get to the real experience, past the anecdotes and myths and see what is actually going on."
The study involves understanding the advantages and disadvantages of having children of different ages.
"To date studies of older parents have tended not to take into consideration the impact of infertility," explains Gibson. "We want to look at how age may play itself differently in fertile and infertile groups. We want to disaggregate those factors - age and infertility."
In all 480 participants will be sought for the study in Sydney and Melbourne.
Aims and outcomes
The main aim of the project is to identify the positives and the risks of having children at various ages and stages so that services can be more attuned to people's needs.
The intended outcome is to provide a decision aid to be used in community health settings and fertility clinics. This will give parents and intending parents a realistic picture of both the positives and negatives of having a baby in their 20s, 30s or 40s.
"We hope to produce a decision-aid booklet drawing the data from different couples' experiences together," explains McMahon. "We would also like to dispel some of the myths and stigma. It is good to be aware of the positives and negatives at all stages of the childbearing period. Women need to be informed about fertility risks related to age, but a lot of different factors influence when couples have children. There are a lot of myths and anecdotes about parenting difficulties for older mothers which we suspect may not be supported by evidence."
PhD scholarships
The ARC Linkage Project is funded for three years, with McMahon hopeful of follow up funding.
The team are currently looking for two PhD students who have an interest in parenting and reproductive issues. Students will work on projects which look in depth at the female and male experience.
The successful candidates will also have the opportunity to travel overseas. "We hope that the students will be able to link up with Dr Boivin who is a big leader in infertility work in Europe," says McMahon. "They will also have the chance to attend a major European conference on infertility later in their candidature."
For further information contact Dr Cathy McMahon cathy.mcmahon@psy.edu.au or Dr Frances Gibson frances.gibson@mq.edu.au