Trends in Intentions to Remain Childless in the United States

Contemporary parenting and its association with parents’ well-being in the face of COVID-19: The mediating role of guilt.

“…It is of little wonder, therefore, that contemporary parenting is associated with low mental health indicators, such as anxiety (Kestler-Peleg & Lavenda, 2018), stress, depression, and low self-esteem (Henderson et al, 2016; Rizzo et al, 2013). Moreover, the prevalence of individuals who are childless by choice is growing (Rybińska, 2020), although at the cost of evoking moral outrage and being considered disadvantaged for social connections (Ciaccio et al, 2021). The outlook of research on contemporary parenting as a role that changes from a socially orientated construct to a child-focused construct and, eventually, to a parent-focus construct further emphasizes the individualistic postmodern perception of well-being.…”

Introduction: the relevance of studying fertility across time and space

“…As Potts et al (2011) observed about the situation in Niger, this trend "casts a threatening shadow" over the future of these countries, and over the sustainability of their populations. Although global fertility has been converging to relatively low levels across most countries and regions (Strulik and Vollmer 2013), the gap between the highest-fertility country, Niger, with an estimated total fertility rate (TFR) of 6.95 in 2015-2020(UN 2019, and South Korea, with a TFR of 0.92 in 2019, remains huge.…”

“…Among younger women across educational groups, including women with a university degree, the intended or desired family size is generally around two children (Beaujouan and Berghammer 2019;Berrington and Pattaro 2014). In addition, the share of younger respondents who express an ideal or an intention to be permanently childless remains low in most countries (e.g., Rybińska (2020) for the United States; Esteve et al this volume). This evidence suggests that one of the key explanations for low fertility rates is the inability of women and men to realise their fertility plans, with the intentionsbehaviour gap typically being larger in countries with very low fertility (e.g., in Italy, Greece and Spain) and among women with higher education (Beaujouan and Berghammer 2019).…”

Birth cohort changes in fertility ideals: Evidence from repeated cross-sectional surveys in Finland

“…Likewise, a recent study by Hartnett and Gemmill (2020) showed that the intended number of children has declined in the US from 2006 to 2017, and childlessness intentions among younger people have risen. This period was also characterized by unprecedented declines in the total fertility rate in the US (Rybińska 2020).…”

“…Due to the high expectations of good parenting (the so-called intensive parenting), younger people might perceive childbearing as more demanding than their parents' generation (Craig et al 2014). This may, in turn, be related to the increase in childfree preferences among younger people (Rybińska 2020), and to the increased ideal age at first birth (Melnikas and Romero 2020). To continue, broader societal changes, often classified under the umbrella of globalization, and the rise of new information channels, including social media, are related to rising uncertainty in people's life and, as a result, may lead to changes in family formation and may shape the aspirations of young adults (Mills and Blossfeld 2013;Vignoli et al 2020).…”