Abstract
Childfree individuals choose not to have children, which makes them a distinctive group from parents who have had children, not-yet-parents who plan to have children, and childless indivduals who would have liked to have children. Most research on parental status and psychosocial characteristics has not effectively distinguished childfree individuals from other non-parents or has relied on non-representative samples. In this study, we use a representative sample of 981 Michigan adults to estimate the prevalence of childfree individuals, to examine how childfree individuals differ from parents and other types of non-parents in life satisfaction, political ideology, and personality, and to examine whether childfree individuals are viewed as an outgroup. We find that over a quarter of Michigan adults identified as childfree. After controlling for demographic characteristics, we find no differences in life satisfaction and limited differences in personality traits between childfree individuals and parents, not-yet-parents, or childless individuals. However, childfree individuals were more liberal than parents, and those who have or want(ed) children felt substantially less warm toward childfree individuals than childfree individuals felt toward each other. Given the prevalence of childfree individuals, the risks of their outgroup status, and their potential role in politics as a uniquely liberal group, it is important for demographic research to distinguish the childfree from others and to better understand these individuals.
Highlights
Recent fertility rates in the United States and other Western industrialized countries are low, suggesting that many individuals are not having children [1,2,3]
We present findings from inferential analyses examining whether the childfree differ from parents and other types of non-parents in life satisfaction, political ideology, and personality, and whether they are viewed as an outgroup
We estimated the population prevalence and demographics of childfree individuals, examined whether childfree individuals differ from parents, not-yet-parents, and childless individuals in terms of their life satisfaction, political ideology, and personality
Summary
Recent fertility rates in the United States and other Western industrialized countries are low, suggesting that many individuals are not having children [1,2,3]. Childfree individuals have been recognized in the literature at least since the 1970s [20, 21] and are defined as people who do not have children and do not desire to have children in the future Two features of this definition have made identifying and studying childfree individuals challenging. Demographic data typically indicate an individual’s age and number of children, they provide little insight into whether an individual is childfree. This raises questions about existing estimates of the prevalence of childfree individuals in the population, and has substantially limited what is known about childfree individuals compared to individuals with other parental statuses
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