Health News / February 2007
No Child by Choice
In the last two decades, childlessness among women of older ages in the US has been increasing. A study in Journal of Marriage and Family found that, in the growing demographic of childless women aged 35-44, women who are voluntarily childless outnumber women who cannot have children or expect to have them in the future. Using the National Survey of Family Growth, the study determined that the percent of older women who are voluntarily childless is higher than when it was first measured in 1982.
In 2002, 42 percent of older childless women had consciously chosen not to bear children.
Contrary to the public perception that all childless women are generally unhappy with their condition, the study showed that assumptions of older, childless women being dissatisfied with their status simply do not apply to the largest group of childless older women.
“Our research leads to the notion that for some women, childbearing might not have even been part of an equation,” says Joyce Abma, Ph.D., a social scientist at the National Center for Health Statistics and lead author of the study. “Public impressions that all older childless women are eager to start a family and ‘beat the odds’ of increasing infertility stand to be refined.”
Public health campaigns to encourage women to begin childbearing before age-related issues begin are, perhaps, not relevant for a larger subgroup of women than previously realized. Educated women, with satisfying or challenging careers often don’t have time to raise a family. In consideration of divorce rates, some have chosen not to place themselves at risk for becoming a single parent later. But many voluntarily childless women make their decision for positive reasons of personal growth, financial freedom and personal independence.
The study also found that women who were voluntarily childless are disproportionately educated, are employed full-time and most commonly white, although the number of black women in this category is increasing steadily. Voluntarily childless women are also of higher socio-economic status and more likely to identify themselves as non-religious, when compared to the overall population.
The Journal of Marriage and Family has been the leading research journal in the family field for over 60 years, featuring original research and theory, research interpretation and reviews, and critical discussion concerning marriage, relationships and families.
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