Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jul 11;26(1):95.
doi: 10.1186/s12910-025-01259-5.

"Age independent, but person dependent": a Swiss interview-based study on the meaning of good parenthood at an advanced parental age

Nathalie Bettina Neeser  1 , Andrea Martani  2 , Veerle Provoost  3 , Guido Pennings  3 , Bernice Simone Elger  2   4 , Christian De Geyter  5 , Nicolas Vulliemoz  6 , Tenzin Wangmo  2
Affiliations

"Age independent, but person dependent": a Swiss interview-based study on the meaning of good parenthood at an advanced parental age

Nathalie Bettina Neeser et al. BMC Med Ethics. .

Abstract

Background: Child welfare is one of the most important topics when it comes to parenting competence and the definition of good parenthood. This is widely discussed, especially in the context of treatment considerations for medically assisted reproduction (MAR) for patients of Advanced Parental Age (APA, here defined as 40 years and older). The aim of this study is to contribute to the exploration of how different stakeholders in this context envision the concept of good parenthood.

Methods: An explorative semi-structured interview study was conducted with a total of 15 healthcare providers, 12 aspiring APA-parents, 21 APA-parents and 20 adult offspring of APA-parents.

Results: After thematic analysis, results show that although the connecting focal point among participant groups is reproductive age, participants consistently emphasized that APA is not a determining factor to define a "good" parent. Instead, we identified three themes representing participants' views on this topic: (i) the difficulties in defining good parenthood; (ii) the family structure and context as inherent to parenting quality; and (iii) good parents as conscious adapters.

Conclusions: Participants expressed their views that good parenthood depends on the personality of the parent, rather than on one single characteristic of a parent, such as age. Our results challenge the focus on a singular parental characteristic in safeguarding the welfare of future children and therefore also the role currently attributed to parental age in decisions about access to MAR.

Keywords: Advanced parental age; Ageing; Child welfare; Ethics; Parenthood; Qualitative methods.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was approved by the ethics commission Nordwest- und Zentralschweiz (EKNZ, BASEC-Nr. 2021–01429). All study participants provided written informed consent before participating in the study. The research was carried out in accordance with the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Thematic structure to define a good parent
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Ajmani S. North Coast Women’s Care: California’s Still-Undefined Standard for Protecting Religious Freedom. California Law Review. 2009;97(6):1867–1876. 10.15779/Z38NT4B.
    1. Barbuscia A, Myrskylä M, Goisis A. The psychosocial health of children born after medically assisted reproduction: Evidence from the UK Millennium Cohort Study. SSM – Population Health. 2019;7:100355. 10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100355. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Billari FC, Kohler HP, Andersson G, Lundström H. Approaching the Limit: Long-Term Trends in Late and Very Late Fertility. Population and Development Review. 2007;33(1):149–170. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25434588.
    1. Boehler B. Differences and similarities in the attitudes of paediatricians, gynaecologists and experienced parents to criteria delineating potential risks for the welfare of children tob e conceived with assisted reproduction. Swiss Med Wkly. 2010;140(2728):w13064. 10.4414/smw.2010.13064. - PubMed
    1. Bundesamt für Justiz. 1996. Botschaft über die Volksinitiative «zum Schutz des Menschen vor Manipulationen in der Fortpflanzungstechnologie (Initiative für menschenwürdige Fortpflanzung, FMF)» und zu einem Bundesgesetz über die medizinisch unterstützte Fortpflanzung (Fortpflanzungsmedizingesetz, FMedG). Online accessible: https://www.bj.admin.ch/dam/bj/de/data/gesellschaft/gesetzgebung/archiv/.... Last accessed: 17 Dec 2024.

Grants and funding