The Valuation of Children and Parenthood Among the Voluntarily Childless and Parental Couples in Canada

Abstract

Recent demographic evidence indicating a declining fertility rate, developments such as the increase in the participation of married women in the labor force, and the emergence of alternatives to traditional marriage and family patterns seem to suggest a subtle shift in attitudes toward children and parenthood in Canada. The present study attempts to examine the nature of such a shift by exploring certain values that presumably influence fertility decisions among a nonrandom sample of couples with children and those who are intentionally childless. The two main reasons for bearing and rearing children are ‘the satisfaction of emotional needs’ of parents and ‘perpetuation of the family name and other symbolic attributes.’ The childless couples perceived children as impediments to self-actualization which entails educational and occupational success. They tended to view children as obstacles to the development of a couple-centered marital relationship and conjugal solidarity.

The meaning of parenthood and couples' reactions to male infertility

“…As noted previously, motherhood is traditionally perceived as a central role for women (Russo, 1976) while fatherhood and masculinity were found to be linked in a comparison of fertile and infertile couples based on personal construct theory (Humphrey, 1977). Although the present study did not purport to examine the range of possible factors underlying the meaning of parenthood (see Ramu & Tavuchis, 1986), the extent to which children serve as an expression of sex roles (i.e. fulfilment of one's masculinity/femininity) is clearly important.…”

“…Indeed, it has been suggested that virtually all societies are essentially pronatalistic, encouraging reproduction and exalting the values of parenthood (Callan, 1982a(Callan, , 1983. Doubtless many factors affect motivation for parenthood (Ramu & Tavuchis, 1986) and their relative importance is hard to disentangle.…”

Does the first letter of one’s name affect life decisions? A natural language processing examination of nominative determinism.

“…While names are simply arbitrary social labels used to differentiate one individual from another, in most cultures, namelessness signifies a lack of honor or identity (Frommer, 1982; Watson, 1986). One major reason many people have children is to perpetuate their own names (Arnold & Kuo, 1984; Callan & Kee, 1981; Ramu & Tavuchis, 1986), and early anthropologists knew of no existing culture that did not give people first names (Murdock, 1945). Names have tremendous psychological significance as carriers of identity (Dion, 1983).…”

Choosing to be Childfree: Research on the Decision Not to Parent

“…Moving into the 1980s, scholarship's focus on the unique attributes and demographics of the voluntarily childless continued (Bartlett 1996;Baum and Cope 1980;Boyd 1989;Bram 1984;Callan 1986;Kiernan 1989;Ramu and Tavuchis 1986). This decade also saw increased attention paid to voluntarily childless heterosexual couples (Baber and Dreyer 1986;Burgwyn 1983;Callan 1984).…”