Reproductive Intentions Affected by Perceptions of Climate Change and Attitudes toward Death

Abstract

Adverse climate change poses a threat to the health of pregnant women and unborn children and has a negative impact on the quality of life. Additionally, individuals with a high awareness of the consequences of climate change may be accompanied by a fear of the inevitable end, such as a fear of death. This, in turn, may discourage planning for offspring. Thus, both the perception of climate change and fear of death can have implications for reproductive intentions. Only a few studies to date indicate that concerns about climate change, especially when combined with attitudes towards death, may influence the formation of attitudes and reproductive plans. Thus, current research is aimed at looking at reproductive intentions from the perspective of both climate change concerns and the fear of death. This study was conducted from December 2020 to February 2021. A total of 177 childless males and females (58.8%) took part in the study. The Death Anxiety and Fascination Scale (DAFS) and Climate Change Perception Questionnaire (CCPQ) were completed online. Overall, 63.8% of respondents displayed a positive reproductive intention. Multivariable logistic regression analysis found that, in addition to the young age of respondents, the likelihood of positive reproductive intentions increases with death anxiety and decreases with death fascination and with climate health concerns. The results indicate that both climate change concerns and the fear of death are relevant to reproductive plans—positive reproductive intentions increase with death anxiety and decrease with death fascination and with climate health concerns. The results fill the gap in the existing research on predictors of reproductive intentions and can be used for further scientific exploration and practical activities addressing the issues of the determinants of decisions about having children. The individual consequences of climate change are clearly taken into account in the context of offspring planning and, therefore, should be considered in the design of social and environmental actions.

The Relationships between Drought Exposure, Fertility Preferences, and Contraceptive Behaviors: A Multicountry Study

“…That is, being exposed to drought could lead women to want to accelerate childbearing to protect against what may be perceived as a persistent threat to their family that will only worsen with time. The disruption and uncertainty that drought generates in people's lives could, paradoxically, facilitate women's desire to have a(nother) child sooner than later (Bielawska-Batorowicz, Zagaj, and Kossakowska 2022;Dessy et al 2019;Rosen et al 2021).…”

Choosing to live environmentally childfree: private-sphere environmentalism, environmental activism, or both?

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are ethically obliged to having small families, restricting reproduction to not having children or only having one child (Conly, 2016;Rieder, 2016). In the present article, the focus is on those who out of environmental concern choose not to reproduce at all, a phenomenon that could be termed living environmentally childfree.Survey studies have indeed found negative correlations between environmental concern and reproductive attitudes (Davis et al, 2019) and intentions (Andrijevic & Striessnig, 2017;Arnocky et al, 2012;Bielawska-Batorowicz et al, 2022). However, a study in the countries Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia found heterogenous results across the countries, where both positive and negative associations between climate change concern and the ideal number of children were observed (Szczuka, 2022).

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“…Survey studies have indeed found negative correlations between environmental concern and reproductive attitudes (Davis et al, 2019) and intentions (Andrijevic & Striessnig, 2017;Arnocky et al, 2012;Bielawska-Batorowicz et al, 2022). However, a study in the countries Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia found heterogenous results across the countries, where both positive and negative associations between climate change concern and the ideal number of children were observed (Szczuka, 2022).…”