{"id":30572,"date":"2022-08-03T00:16:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T00:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=30572"},"modified":"2022-08-05T13:55:12","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T13:55:12","slug":"more-than-1-in-5-us-adults-dont-want-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/more-than-1-in-5-us-adults-dont-want-children\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 1 in 5 US adults don\u2019t want children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/zachary-p-neal-1243639\">Zachary P. Neal<\/a>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/michigan-state-university-1349\">Michigan State University<\/a><\/em> and <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/jennifer-watling-neal-484958\">Jennifer Watling Neal<\/a>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/michigan-state-university-1349\">Michigan State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fears about declining fertility rates have come from sources as diverse as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/think\/opinion\/pope-francis-claims-pets-replacing-children-many-families-selfish-s-ncna1287140\">Pope Francis<\/a> and Tesla CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1545046146548019201\">Elon Musk<\/a>. The U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson could <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/outlook\/2022\/06\/24\/dobbs-roe-forced-pregnancy\/\">force women to give birth against their wishes<\/a>, while a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.co.uk\/article\/should-we-tax-the-childless-j7h9c297r\">British editorial<\/a> even proposed a tax on people without children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Media outlets regularly point out that more Americans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2022\/07\/20\/birth-rate-financial-hesitancy.html\">are having fewer children<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/us-birth-fertility-rate-decline-having-baby-millennials-kids-cost-2021-6\">forgoing parenthood altogether<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But how many Americans want to have kids and can\u2019t? Or are still planning to be parents down the road? How many are consciously making the choice to never have kids?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While <a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/topics\/health\/fertility\/data.html\">official statistics in the United States<\/a> and elsewhere track fertility, they don\u2019t provide insight into the people who have not had children. There are many different types of nonparents: \u201cChildfree\u201d people do not want children; \u201cchildless\u201d people want children but can\u2019t have them; \u201cnot-yet parents\u201d plan to have children in the future; \u201cundecided\u201d people aren\u2019t sure they will have children; and \u201cambivalent\u201d people aren\u2019t sure they would have wanted children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41598-022-15728-z\">In a 2022 study<\/a> of 1,500 adults in Michigan, <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=HVJX9_gAAAAJ&amp;hl=en\">we<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=kcD2PeYAAAAJ&amp;hl=en\">found<\/a> that 21.64% of adults do not want to have children and therefore are choosing to be childfree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Identifying childfree people<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To identify childfree people, we asked each participant a series of up to three questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Do you have, or have you ever had, any biological, step-, or adopted children?<\/li><li>Do you plan to have any biological or adopted children in the future?<\/li><li>Do you wish you had or could have biological or adopted children?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Respondents could answer \u201cyes,\u201d \u201cno,\u201d or \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d to each question. We classified as childfree those who answered \u201cno\u201d to all three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our estimate of the number of childfree people is much higher than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/4122892\">past national studies<\/a>, which placed the percentage between 2% and 9%. This likely happened because our measurement focuses on a person\u2019s desire to have children, not their ability. This is important because a person can be childfree whether they are biologically capable of having children or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-datawrapper wp-block-embed-datawrapper\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" title=\"More than 1 in 5 Michigan adults don&#039;t want kids\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/TnFhC\/3\/#?secret=shawgAfZHj\" data-secret=\"shawgAfZHj\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"400\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Our estimate is also slightly lower than an initial estimate \u2013 27% \u2013 from <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0252528\">a 2021 study<\/a> that we <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/far-more-adults-dont-want-children-than-previously-thought-163142\">wrote about a year ago<\/a>. The original study did not allow respondents to answer \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d to these questions and therefore could not separate the undecided or ambivalent from the childfree. We were surprised that after refining our measurement to distinguish these unique groups, we still observed so many childfree adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Roughly half the adults in our study were parents, but childfree adults were the largest nonparent group. While our survey wasn\u2019t nationally representative, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.census.gov\/quickfacts\/fact\/table\/US,MI\/PST045221\">2021 Census<\/a> showed that Michigan is demographically similar to the United States in terms of age, race, education and income. If the pattern we have observed in Michigan reflects national trends, it would mean 50 million to 60 million American adults are childfree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>They\u2019re deciding early in life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>People, especially women, who say they don\u2019t want children are often told they\u2019ll change their mind. But we found that\u2019s likely not the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In our study, people reported making the decision to be childfree early in life, most often in their teens and 20s. Moreover, it isn\u2019t just young people who are claiming they don\u2019t want children. Many women who decided in their teens to be childfree are much older now, and are still childfree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-datawrapper wp-block-embed-datawrapper\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" title=\"Most childfree adults made their decision early in life\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/3RBq6\/2\/#?secret=hBmk7ON2N2\" data-secret=\"hBmk7ON2N2\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"400\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Our findings depart from <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1300\/J002v02n02_01\">research conducted in the 1970s<\/a>, which found that childfree adults tended to arrive at their decision later in life after postponing parenthood for many years. Earlier decisions may reflect changing norms toward parenthood and an increasing recognition and acceptance of a <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/241\/having-it-all-without-having-children\/\">childfree lifestyle<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Underpopulation isn\u2019t the problem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite Musk\u2019s insistence that there is an underpopulation crisis, the <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2022\/07\/11\/elon-musk-underpopulation-crisis-un-population-report\/\">global population will continue to grow<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This growth will likely have a negative impact on climate change \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/a-long-fuse-the-population-bomb-is-still-ticking-50-years-after-its-publication-96090\">some researchers contend<\/a> that one of the best ways to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/best-way-reduce-your-carbon-footprint-one-government-isn-t-telling-you-about\">reduce carbon emissions<\/a> is to have fewer children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, the Dobbs decision has chilling implications for the millions of Americans who are childfree: A significant swath of them are now at risk of being forced to have children despite not wanting them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Issues affecting childfree Americans go beyond reproductive freedom. For example, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shrm.org\/resourcesandtools\/hr-topics\/people-managers\/pages\/childless-workers.aspx\">workplace policies on work-life balance often favor parents<\/a>. Because so many people are childfree, we believe the needs of this group warrant more attention from policymakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/zachary-p-neal-1243639\">Zachary P. Neal<\/a>, Associate Professor of Psychology, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/michigan-state-university-1349\">Michigan State University<\/a><\/em> and <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/jennifer-watling-neal-484958\">Jennifer Watling Neal<\/a>, Professor of Psychology, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/michigan-state-university-1349\">Michigan State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This article is republished from <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\">The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/more-than-1-in-5-us-adults-dont-want-children-187236\">original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zachary P. Neal, Michigan State University and Jennifer Watling Neal, Michigan State University Fears about declining fertility rates have come from sources as diverse as Pope Francis and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson could force women to give birth against their wishes, while a recent British editorial [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":30573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,8025],"tags":[2388,7848,10154,12245,6674,3832,4771,1034,209,3697,5347],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30572"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30572"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30584,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30572\/revisions\/30584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}