The Incompatibility of Materialism and the Desire for Children: Psychological Insights into the Fertility Discrepancy Among Modern Countries

Abstract

We examined factors related to attitudes toward marriage and the importance of having children in both the US and Singapore. Path analysis indicated that life dissatisfaction leads to materialism, and both of these factors lead to favorable attitudes toward marriage, which leads to greater desire for children. Further analysis indicated this model was effective in explaining the difference in desire for children between Singaporeans and Americans, whereby Singaporeans have lower life satisfaction, higher materialism, and lower attitudes toward marriage and children. Materialistic standards of success were also related to the emphasis women placed on potential marriage partners' earning capacity. As Singaporean women had higher materialistic standards, they also placed higher emphasis on potential mates' earning capacity. Results suggest a consideration of psychological variables such as life satisfaction, materialism, and mate preferences may lead to a better understanding of larger-scale socioeconomic issues, including low fertility rates among developed East Asian countries.

The problem group? Psychological wellbeing of unmarried people living alone in the Republic of Korea

“…Attitudes toward marriage were significantly related to a lower likelihood of suicidal ideation such that respondents with positive attitudes were less likely to experience such thoughts than to those with a non-positive attitude. This finding is in line with the results of previous studies on the relationship between a positive outlook on life and an optimistic anticipation of marriage possibilities (Li et al 2011).…”

Multi–Objective Optimization of Well–Being in the Eu-Ropean Union Member STATES

“…Total fertility rate is interrelated with materialism-based happiness and life satisfaction (Li et al, 2011). It can be assumed that lower life satisfaction leads to increase in materialism and, therefore, weaker desire to have children (i. e. lower total fertility rate).…”

Materialism, Status Consumption, and Market Involved Consumers

“…Analogously, Richins () shows that materialistic people appear to believe that acquiring goods will transform their lives and that this mechanism partially explains why they buy so much. Li, Patel, Balliet, Tov, and Scollon () find that satisfaction with life negatively influences materialism, which in turn leads to negative attitudes toward marriage and subsequently toward having children.…”