In contemporary society, having children is no longer associated with families like it used to be. It is important to note that Blackstone (2014, p. 68) distinguished the terms childless and childfree because each term refers to the differences in motives for not having children. Childless families are those in which the parents want to have children but do not have them, whereas childfree families are those in which the husband and wife agree to skip parenthood. The term non-parents can be used to refer to both childless and childfree parents. The first trends of increasing childfree families can be observed during the 1970s, but each person may have a different motivation for staying childfree.
One possible explanation of the increasing trend of not having children voluntarily is the industrialization. In early America, before the 20th century, having children was a necessity because they would one day take on the responsibilities of taking care of their parents. Much like marriage, having children was not motivated by love or personal desire, and having children was a necessity because parents needed help with their farms of family trade businesses (Coontz, 2015, p. 41). However, people in industrialized nations no longer rely on physical labor to survive, so it is possible to argue that having children is no longer a necessity, which is why some families may decide that they will not have children.
Just like the industrial revolution eliminated the importance of children in the biological survival of families, it is possible that the changing social structure contributes to the growing number of childfree families. According to Blackstone and Stewart (2012), most childfree adults do not regret skipping parenthood and “many find alternative ways to connect with others and engage in their communities” (p. 723). Therefore, it is possible to suggest that adults no longer perceive themselves as dependent on children for social support in the future when they grow old, which could explain the increasing trend of being childfree.
Although socioeconomic status allows several childfree families to have children, high socioeconomic status may contribute to the increasing number of childfree families. As a general rule, non-parents are usually people working in professional occupations or managerial positions (Blackstone, 2014, p. 69). Furthermore, the first increasing trends of childfree families started during the 1970s, and they coincided with the drastically increasing participation of women in the workforce (Blackstone & Stewart, 2012, p. 721). According to Blackstone (2014, p. 70), women usually report being childfree because of their desires to develop careers, whereas men usually explain that childrearing incurs a high cost and that they want to remain financially flexible.
In addition to building careers and staying financially flexible, reported reasons for staying childfree include: freedom from the responsibility of caring for children, personal freedom in general, the ability to develop relationships with adults, rejection of the role of the mother in women, selfishness, feeling unsuited for the role of a parent, aversion to the parent’s lifestyle, spontaneous mobility, and the opportunity to engage in self-fulfillment (Blackstone & Stewart, 2012, p. 721).
Based on the current research on childfree families, there is no clear pathway to being childfree because everyone can have different reasons for skipping parenthood. The motives for staying childfree can be divided into micro-level motivations and macro-level motivations. Macro-level motivations are related to changes in the social structures, and women entering the workforce and the opportunity to remain independent from children in old age are example of environmental circumstances that contribute to childfree families. Micro-level motivations are individual reasons for avoiding parenthood, and some examples of those motives include perceived incompetence to raise children or the rejection of the parents’ lifestyle. Although current research does not suggest so, it is possible that the increasing trend of childfree families can be explained by the interaction of macro- and micro-level motivations, but more studies will be necessary to support that claim.
References
Blackstone, A. (2014). Childless or Childfree? Contexts, 13(4), 68-70.
Blackstone, A., & Stewart, M. D. (2012). Choosing to be childfree: Research on the decision not to parent. Sociology Compass, 6(9), 718-727.
Coontz, S. (2015). The evolution of American families. In: B. J. Risman & V. Rutter (Eds.), Families as they really are (2nd ed.). New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.
