According to a 2020 analysis that looked at trends across 195 countries, the average number of kids a woman had dropped from 4.7 in 1950 to 2.4 in 2017. The study authors predict it will fall below 1.7 by 2100. In the United States, in particular, the birth rate has been on a steady decline for decades, bottoming out around 2019 (Vollset, S. E., et al., The Lancet, Vol. 396, No. 10258, 2020).
There are myriad reasons people are having fewer children. For one, traditional markers of adulthood, like moving out of your parents’ house and getting married, are hitting later, and having kids is following suit. That’s largely due to financial realities like skyrocketing mortgage rates and the loss of many middle-class jobs, which make self-sufficiency a higher bar to reach.
“We’ve extended adolescence a bit,” said Adam Duberstein, PsyD, a clinical psychologist who sees patients at two clinics outside of Detroit. “I get the sense, too, that some people are OK with delaying the decision [because of] assisted reproductive technology.” Women are also less likely now to feel like mothering is their default life path than in generations past. “We do have choices now, and we need to make the right choices for us,” Duberstein said.
Another reason for parental reluctance is climate change fears. One study found that 39% of young people globally feel hesitant to have children because of climate concerns (Hickman, C., et al., The Lancet Planetary Health, Vol. 5, No. 12, 2021).
“People are thinking about: What are the implications of me having a child on the environment? Can I justify bringing a child into a world that is so turbulent, that is so messed up, that is so unsettled?” said Julie Bindeman, PsyD, a reproductive psychologist in Rockville, Maryland, who counsels patients with a range of reproductive challenges and life transitions.
At the same time, becoming a parent can help quell those concerns in some cases, said Toni Falbo, PhD, a professor in the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Educational Psychology who studies sibling effects and only children. “One way to get invested in the future and become more hopeful is to have a child,” she said. “Fighting for some young person’s life is very motivating, and then these young people take up their own positions and try to advocate for their own future.”
Indeed, 2021 research in the journal Population and Environment found that “perspectives of doom and hope emerged simultaneously” when looking at how climate change-related concerns influenced reproductive attitudes (Helm, S., et al., Vol. 43, 2021).
But in the United States, the threat to reproductive rights further complicates people’s plans, or lack thereof, to have children, Duberstein has found in his practice. One patient who had decided, along with his wife, to remain child-free, for instance, was “completely panicked” the week Roe v. Wade was overturned. “He said, ‘What do I do if we accidentally get pregnant? It’s going to be a nightmare for me, but it’s going to be even worse for her.’”
While some people are finding ways to get abortions despite restricted access, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that about half of pregnancies in the United States are unplanned.
“It’s a luxury in some ways to be able to make a decision,” Falbo said. The same could be said for the 20% of Americans who want to become parents but are facing infertility, according to other CDC data.
“Some younger individuals might make the choice to have families later, but when that’s taken from them because of other life circumstances, that’s really challenging to process,” said Anastasia Canell, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in clinical geropsychology in a long-term care facility.
Many fence-sitters also cite a lack of societal, workplace, and financial support for parents, especially mothers, in the United States. The Pew Research report found that 17% of childless adults under 50 said they probably wouldn’t have kids for financial reasons. The country has no paid parental leave policy and sparse and expensive childcare options yet still expects more from women than men at home.
A 2023 literature review looking at mostly middle-class Americans and Europeans found that women perform the majority of “mental labor,” especially when it comes to childcare and parenting decisions. Women also experience more related negative consequences, like stress, lower life and relationship satisfaction, and career disadvantages (Reich-Stiebert, N., et al., Sex Roles, Vol. 88, No. 11–12, 2023).
At the same time, Chappell’s dissertation found that 34- to 40-year-old childless men were more likely than childless women their age to intend to have children and have positive feelings about it, perhaps because they tend to receive more of the rewards and fewer of the responsibilities, she hypothesized. Men’s biological capability to sit on the fence much longer may play a role, too.
“If we do want people to have more children, how can we make parenthood a benefit rather than this huge strain?” Chappell asked.
This article was written by from www.apa.org
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