Becoming voluntarily childless: an exploratory study in a Scottish city.

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Life history data were collected from 78 individuals who were partners in voluntarily childless marriages in order to identify some of the situations and motives informing the decision to remain childless. The respondents, who were volunteers contacted at family planning clinics in Scotland, were clustered in professional, intermediate, and skilled occupational groups and had been married for an average of 5 years. Avoidanceof the penalties of parenthood constituted the basis of motivation to remain childless for 39% of the women and 38% of the men in the sample, whereas protection of the rewards of childlessness was the primary motivating factor for 61% of women and 62% of male respondents. 27 of the 30 avoiders (90%) had never expected to become parents. Their wish to avoid parenthood was based on a dislike for children (6 respondents) or a view of parenthood as an unrewarding prospect (2 respondents), a loss of control over self and future (15) respondents), financial deprivation (2 respondents), or too heavy a responsibility (5 respondents). The 48 men and women who chose to protect the rewards of childlessness view childlessness as facilitating marital harmony (11 respondents), a condition for marriage (3 respondents), more fulfilling (14 respondents), a way of defending life-style routines (18 respondents), or a social and moral responsibility (2 respondents). The woman's career, an adequate standard of living, and spontaneous acton were the goals most often cited by study participants as having been made more accessible by childlessness. The findings of this study suggest that voluntary childlessness is not an expression of neurosis or immaturity; rather, it is a complex decision of which the benefits are considered to outweigh the costs of social nonconformity. It is tentatively concluded that the proportion of childless couples is likely to increase.