Who are the childless people? A study by psychology professors at the University of Michigan compared people who don’t want children to other population groups (parents, intended parents, and people without children, but not by choice).
27% of the population identifies as childless
Based on a representative sample of adults over the age of 18 in the state of Michigan, Jennifer Watling Neal and Zachary P. Neal found that more than a quarter of the population (27%) identified as childless.
To date, studies of childfree people have been few and the observed prevalence in the general population much lower (2 to 9%) – probably because we relied instead on women’s fertility to identify them and that a large part of the childless population is was therefore left out.
There, the research duo asked the 1,000 people who make up the sample three simple questions:
- Do you (or have you had) children?
- Are you planning to have children in the future?
- Would you like to have or be able to have children?
People who answer no to all three questions are considered childless. Among these individuals, 35% were in a relationshipdemonstrating that couples without children by choice represent a non-negligible number of families in the United States.
Are childless people more or less happy than others?
Once the childless group was identified, the researchers attempted to do so whether there were differences between these people and other adults in terms of life satisfaction, personality traits or political orientation.
On the first two points, psychologist Zachary Neal is very clear:
“After controlling for demographic characteristics, we found no differences in life satisfaction, and very limited differences in personality traits, between childless individuals, parents, people wanting a child, and children[NDLR : personnes sans enfant, mais pas par choix]. »
In other words, other things being equal, even childless people and other people are satisfied with their lives. Which is quite surprising, since one could for example imagine that people without children involuntarily could be less satisfied with their situation…
As far as personality is concerned, there are therefore very few differences between the childfree and the others, which leads researchers to say that it is not character traits that influence the desire for a child, but rather other factors (political orientation, economic situation, etc.).
The only noticeable difference is that people who want to have children seem to be slightly friendlier than people without children (In the “Big Five” model used by psychologists, agreeableness refers to the tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others).
Parents would be more conservative than childless
Done, childless people appear to have more liberal political views on average than their parents, who are more attached to conservative values (all on an American reading grid, of course). Here’s what the study, published in the journal, says PLOS One :
“More liberal individuals may be more likely to choose to be childfree for promote or facilitate equality between women and men, or out of environmental concern — recognize that choosing not to have children is the individual action that has the greatest impact in reducing carbon emissions. »
On the other hand, there is no difference in political orientation between childless individuals, intended parents and childless individuals.
Finally, the study focuses on one last topic: how other people see people who don’t want children. The other groups therefore seem to express less sympathy towards the childless than towards themselves.
While the differences remain relatively small, the study believes this may still have real effects, for example in limit the ability of childless people to achieve the same pro-life balance as their parents. The researchers, however, did not ask childless people what they thought of parents or people who want children.
The limitations of this study on childfree
The main limitation of the study is given by the fact that it was conducted in a time T and not in the long term. It therefore does not allow to follow any changes of opinion (in one sense or another) nor to know at what age is the identification as childfree made?.
On the other hand, it doesn’t take into account people who have not yet made a decision about itand I’d rather answer ” I do not know “ to the question: “Are you planning to have children in the future? “.
The study is also conducted on a relatively small sample located in the United States; being the French historical and socio-economic context different, it is possible that we will find results very different from these if we did the same survey in France.
Finally, as the study was conducted during the pandemic, this may have had a influence on desire for children or life satisfaction (especially in the case of parents who have had to telework and at the same time take care of young children).
Apart from these reservations, the study published in the journal PLOS ONE June 16th is still very interesting and we hope it will inspire more researchers to study childless people and their place in society!
Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
