Research tips - how to hear from the community as well as researchers
If no one thinks to approach us, we're not included in the literature
It’s quite easy to figure out how to access research about many topics that might show up in a therapist’s office. We have professional societies and training opportunities. Librarians are eager to help us find articles. There are plentiful databases and subject guides on our ever expanding internet. What can be much harder, and I think much more important, is how to make sure we are really hearing from the communities being studied, discussed, or profiled. A quick look at the mental health literature, both current and historical, shows large gaps where not all marginalized communities are being written about by those from within the community. As I started my career in the late 90’s/early 2000’s I worked and learned in environments where it was appropriate (maybe desired?) to have trainers and materials from those only adjacent to the community. Adoptive parents teaching about what it’s like to be adopted, white American citizens working with immigrant communities, older women leading trainings about work with teenage boys, etc. It’s sobering when I think about what perspectives our profession misses out on.
I like to approach learning about any clinical topic by checking out published research, finding what those actually experiencing the topic have to say, and listening to the clinical wisdom of other providers/consultants with more experience working within said topic. Seems pretty balanced, but what do you do when there is not a ton of information out there? There certainly isn’t an overabundance related to working with the whole spectrum of people without children.
A sad experiment you can try: Go to your library catalog of choice, mine is WorldCat to be thorough, and search keywords ‘childless’ or ‘childfree’ and then compare to ‘parent’. See how far down into the specifics of a parenting niche you’d have to go to get to an equal number of entries to the entirety of childfree or childless entries. Then remember that people without kids are roughly 20% of middle aged adults and an awful lot more of those younger.
But cheer up, published articles don’t have to be your only source and I’m about to tell you what to do!
Ok, firstly, I’d love to acknowledge the folks with childless/childfree lived experience that ARE writing, speaking, and publishing! Love to see it!! I am hopeful that a tide is turning and there will be much more inclusion in the future, not just of “people without kids” but of all the less acknowledged corners of the spectrum. If you find some published work from someone with lived experience see if you can follow that person’s socials or even reach out to get to know them.
How can you find more community perspectives?
Look at social media. There are some great accounts dedicated to what it’s like to be a person without kids and when you look at their collaborative posts, stories, comments, etc you’ll start to find many other accounts to follow. There are also so many people who happen to not have kids and their content is about other stuff. I love these windows into people’s lives, curated of course, but still refreshing.
Read blogs and books. Once again, there are specific books (fiction and nonfiction) on this topic of nonparenthood and authors who just happen to not have kids but isn’t always the prime focus of the book.
Listen to podcasts. I love this one because there are a wide variety of not only hosts but also topics/interviews. Hearing the real conversations can also show us that sometimes we disagree or differ in our outlooks! This makes sense, how could all nonparents march in unison about everything packed into this lived experience?
Look at resource lists that the community has already built for you (How easy can this get, actually!)
https://worldchildlessweek.net/, https://gateway-women.com/resources/, https://www.reddit.com/r/childfree/, and https://myselfishlife.com/resources all come to mind as total goldmines.
Take in all the media that the annual events have to offer- World Childless Week, The Childfree Convention, The Childless Collective Summit. You don’t have to be a person without kids to check them out.
Talk to people you might know who don’t have kids and if they are up for it, maybe you can learn a bit of their story.
When big news headlines arise, check out how those without kids are responding or where we are silent/treading oh-so-carefully.
If you are in any kind of training, class, course, consultation group, or supervision group, bring up this topic and see where the discussion can go and what speaker or resource you can bring in to learn more.
I’ll leave you with some things to consider as you are reading through articles. To see if there is a bridge between research and community experience make sure to look out for:
Who is speaking and who is not speaking.
What are the inclusion/exclusion standards for the study. If people were excluded because of certain factors (let’s say someone that never tried to get pregnant) what is missing from the whole picture?
Is there a binary of childfree/childless presented? If so, much of the middle ground of circumstantial decision making is lost.
What are the actual experiences of your clients? If the majority of the information you are finding is about infertility treatment, you may not be able to use the insights for clients without kids who didn’t get a chance to try. If you are finding lots of things that focus on the empowered choices of the childfree you might not be so open to your intentionally childfree clients when they want to speak to their losses along this path.
I can’t help but mention an acknowledgment section. If the nonparent participants, interviewees, etc are not front and center and instead the author effusively thanks their own children there may just be some bias throughout the work. (I’ve seen this most often in dissertations/theses, which makes me wonder if they were just excited to find an under-researched niche that perhaps they ‘overcame’ on their way to parenthood.)