转型期受扰的自我：女性如何在工作环境中应对生育治疗
转型期受扰的自我：女性如何在工作环境中应对生育治疗
Disrupted selves in transition: How women navigate fertility treatments in the context of work
——《应用心理学杂志》第111卷，第2期，2026年2月——
【摘要】职业女性在向母亲角色转变过程中面临的挑战已得到广泛研究。然而，对于那些因复杂的生育历程而导致母亲角色转变受阻、停滞甚至无法实现的女性，人们的了解却相对较少。本定性研究探讨了41位正在接受生育治疗的职业女性如何经历跨领域的身份挑战，这些挑战威胁着她们渴望实现的母亲身份和职业身份。由于身份转变过程受到干扰，参与者面临三种类型的跨领域干扰——身体上的、情感上的和认知上的——这些干扰持续不断地威胁着她们理想中的自我。与通常有助于身份探索的过渡时期不同，我们发现反复的生育治疗中断，实际上削弱了女性进行身份探索和构想未来自我的能力。这导致了持续的边缘状态。在这种状态下，女性必须在身份认同方面做出权衡，因为她们的母亲愿望越来越难以实现。无论生育治疗成功与否，这段经历都会形成一种“挥之不去的自我”，永久地塑造着她们的个人身份和职业身份。我们的研究扩展了关于边缘状态的研究，揭示了长期的边缘状态如何限制而非促进身份探索，挑战了关于过渡时期探索潜力的假设。我们还为工作-生活平衡领域的研究做出了贡献，阐明了个人身份转变的停滞如何产生不同于传统工作-家庭冲突的独特跨领域干扰。这些见解表明，组织需要更全面的支持系统，以应对生育历程的复杂性和长期性，同时认识到其对员工自我认同的持久影响。
【关键词】生育；边缘状态；身份转变；工作-家庭冲突；身份威胁
[Abstract] The challenges of managing the transition to motherhood for working women have been well documented. However, less is known about women whose transition to motherhood is disrupted, stalled, or never realized through complex fertility journeys. This qualitative study explores how 41 working women undergoing fertility treatments experience cross-domain identity challenges that threaten both their desired maternal and professional identities. Through disruptions to initiated identity transitions, participants face three types of cross-domain interferences—embodied, emotional, and cognitive—that create ongoing threats to their desired selves. Unlike typical liminal periods that facilitate identity exploration, we find that repeated fertility treatment disruptions actually erode women’s ability to engage in identity play and envision possible selves. This leads to perpetual liminality, where women must make identity trade-offs as their maternal aspirations become increasingly difficult to achieve. Whether fertility treatments succeed or fail, the experience creates a “lingering self” that permanently shapes both personal and professional identities. Our findings extend research on liminality by revealing how extended liminal states can constrain rather than enhance identity exploration, challenging assumptions about the exploratory potential of transitional periods. We also contribute to work–life literature by illuminating how stalled personal identity transitions create unique cross-domain interferences distinct from traditional work–family conflict. These insights suggest organizations need more comprehensive support systems that address the complex, extended nature of fertility journeys while recognizing their lasting impact on employees’ sense of self.
[Key words] fertility; liminality; identity transitions; work-family conflict; identity threat
论文原文：Basir, Nada Ladge, Jamie J. Sohrab, Serena (2026). Disrupted selves in transition: How women navigate fertility treatments in the context of work. Journal of Applied Psychology, Volume 111, Issue 2, Pages 153–174. February 2026.
https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0001310
（翻译兼责任编辑：MART）
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