7th May 2014 | by MFC Team
A snap choice? Research shows childless couples make decision after one conversation
New research sheds some light on how couples make the decision to remain child-free. The study was conducted at Middlesex University in the UK and surveyed 75 childless women over age 35 who did not want children.
The results showed that approximately 36% of the respondents had decided not to have children after just one conversation with their partner. As one woman from the survey said, “Negotiation? It only needed one brief discussion along the lines of ‘I don’t want kids-do you?’ ‘Nope, me neither.’” Others shared that they were prompted to discuss the topic after experiencing pressure from others to have children.
5% of the women said they had not talked about the issue at all. As one women shared, “There is no discussion, I don’t want kids and I would never bother to pursue a romantic relationship with someone who did, it would be a pointless endeavour.”
Edina Kurdi, a research assistant who worked on the study said of the results:
“Not having children is obviously a very important decision, and what was interesting from the research was the negligible amount of discussion that couples engaged in – many are agreeing not to have children in one conversation, or in an unspoken way…One possible reason that couples did not need to talk about the issue much is that they would accurately sense their partner did not want children from their beliefs and lifestyle.”
Clearly, these respondents likely represent people who either were sure they didn’t want children or were equivocal about the decision. Research suggests that the decision not to have children takes much more discussion and negotiation when one partner wants children and the other doesn’t.
Read more about remaining child-free here and here.
Read more about the study here.
Leave a Reply