ReviewEuropean journal of ageing2025
Social aspects of childlessness experiences in midlife and late adulthood: a scoping review.
Review in European journal of ageing, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Women's experiences of a medically supervised fasting intervention for infertility: a qualitative study.BMC women's health · 2026Trial
- A Narrative Review of Psychological and Physical Rehabilitation in Infertility Treatment: Toward Holistic Outcomes Beyond Conception.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Despite its increasing prevalence worldwide, ageing without children remains insufficiently studied. This article presents a scoping review of existing qualitative research examining the social aspects of childlessness in midlife and later adulthood. A total of 3444 papers were retrieved from nine electronic databases (Web of Science, PubMed, CINAHL Complete, APA PsycINFO, SocINDEX, Academic Search Complete, Humanities International Complete, Scopus, and Embase) and supplemented with a grey literature search using Google Scholar. Twenty-five articles were included. Four interconnected themes were found to relate to the experiences of childless adults in midlife and later adulthood: (1) living within structural contexts highlights how social norms, life course disadvantages, and policy frameworks affect well-being, access to services, and parenthood possibilities; (2) navigating care and support captures the varied ways childless adults access support through informal and formal care systems; (3) making sense of childlessness focuses on how individuals interpret their childless status; and (4) carving out control describes how individuals adapt to non-parenthood. These findings demonstrate the diversity, complexity, and evolving nature of childlessness experiences among middle-aged and older adults. However, this review also revealed several gaps in the existing literature, highlighting areas for future examination, such as experiences of childlessness among LGBTQ + individuals, how policy frameworks shape lived experiences, and how targeted support interventions may address the needs of childless populations.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.