“Do you want to have children?” and “when will the boys be?” are two questions that all women face. On many occasions, when faced with a negative response, the interlocutor states or -sometimes- asks: “it’s just that you don’t like children.” In this way, practically anyone gives themselves permission to inquire about one of the most important and personal decisions that a woman (or most people) makes in their life. Those questions are often accompanied by judgments, such as: “People assume that I must be unhappy or dissatisfied… in a way that they wouldn’t do with a man.” And in patriarchal culture, happiness and “female fulfillment” have been linked to motherhood.
A team of researchers was interested in finding out if people who decide not to have children really experience greater dissatisfaction with life than those who decide to be mothers and fathers. According to their findings, this belief is wrong: adults who decide not to have children are as satisfied with their lives as those who are parents (Watling Neal & Neal, 2021).
To find out, they surveyed 1,000 adults in Michigan, USA, who were: mothers and fathers, people who did not yet have children but wanted to have them, and people who did not want children.
Participants completed various scales, including measures of life satisfaction and the Big Five of personality, before rating on a scale of 0 to 100 how cold or warm they felt toward women and men they never wanted to have. biological or adopted children.
The team also collected demographic data, including information on participants’ race, gender, education, age, political ideology, and marital status: people who were currently in a relationship, people who had been in a relationship before (e.g., divorced, separated, or widower) or single subjects.
If you value articles like this, consider supporting us by becoming a Pro subscriber. Subscribers enjoy access to members-only articles, materials, and webinars.
More than a quarter of the participants were childless, the second largest group after mothers and fathers. Initially, it appeared that participants without children had lower life satisfaction than those who were parents, but this difference disappeared after controlling for gender, education, age, and marital status.
Participants without children were also more likely to be leftist or liberal compared to those who were parents. The “not yet parents,” those who did not currently have children but hoped to have them in the future, were slightly more agreeable than participants who decided not to have children, but there were no other personality differences between the groups.
Affection toward women and men who decided not to have children also depended on the participants’ parenting status. People who decided to live without children felt warmer toward women and men who decided not to have children, while people who were not yet parents but wanted to be and those who were parents felt significantly colder toward them.
The researchers suggest that further research could look at the variety of reasons why people choose not to have children: in this study, personality did not seem to make a big difference, while political ideology did, so exploring the direction This effect may be interesting. Whether it has to do with women, men, or gender roles, taking a closer look at the political, economic, and social factors that lead people to decide not to have children could provide insight into the complex components of the decision to have children. or not have children.
Bibliographic reference: Watling Neal, J., & Neal, Z.P. (2021). Prevalence and characteristics of childfree adults in Michigan (USA). PloS One, 16(6), e0252528. https://doi.org/
Fountain: