Some express concern that child-free adults will regret the decision not to have children, especially later in life. But Watling Neal explained “we found no evidence that older child-free adults experience any more life regret than older parents.
“[W]e found no evidence that older child-free adults experience any more life regret than older parents,” Jennifer Watling Neal, the co-author of the study, said in a statement. “In fact, older parents were slightly more likely to want to change something about their life.”
Having a child is an impactful life event. In addition to the schedule changes and expenses associated with raising a child, there is also a woman's own health to consider. Research shows that not having kids can raise the risk of certain health issues, like breast cancer.
It's normal to experience a range of emotions about the decision to not have children, including sometimes feeling sadness, regret, or self-doubt. If these feelings become overwhelming or start to have a negative impact on your life or mental health, consider speaking with a therapist.
Take time for yourself. Childlessness does not mean an end to happiness. Spend time with people you love, take a long bubble bath, work on your hobbies, and do things that matter to you. You do not need children to live a positive, meaningful life.
As of 2020, a little less than half of all women in the U.S. were childless. About 68.1 percent of women without children did not have a high school degree, which is in line with the largest percentage of childless women being between the ages of 15 and 19.
It's unfolding over many years." But in Chrastil's view, childless couples tend to be adaptive and resilient, and most don't sit around harboring regrets. Childless couples tend to develop "strong social relationships such as with friends and family, including nieces and nephews," she says.
More than one-quarter of the adults (27 percent) were childfree. More than half of the adults were parents (54 percent). Another 12 percent planned to have biological or adopted children in the future. The remaining 8 percent were childless—they didn't have children, but they wish they could.
The major disadvantages are lack of companionship/being alone/loneliness, lack of support and care when older, and missing the experience of parenthood.
Research shows that there is a “happiness bump” that parents experience right after a baby is born. But that tends to dissipate over the course of a year, Glass says. After that point in time, the levels of happiness of parents and non-parents gradually diverge, with non-parents generally growing happier over time.
The most frequently mentioned effects are distress, raised depression and anxiety levels, lowered self-esteem, feelings of blame and guilt, somatic complaints, and reduced sexual interest.
Surveys conducted over the last few years on representative samples in the US and Germany suggest that the percentage of parents who regret having children is approximately 17–8%.
Research suggests that maturity plays a role in better parenting, too. "Overall, the children of older moms were better behaved, well socialized, and emotionally healthy in their pre-teen years," says Dr. Salber.
Childless men and women have an overall higher mortality than adults with children, meaning that they die earlier, recent studies show.
Key statistics include: There are 5,584,000 families in Australia according to the 2011 Census. The proportion of couples without children has increased from 28% in 1976 compared to 37.8% in 2011.
Among 118 places with comparable data, only six have rates of childlessness higher than the U.S. rate of 19%. Singapore tops the list, with a childless rate of 23%, followed by Austria, the U.K., Finland, Bahrain, and Canada.
A woman's peak reproductive years are between the late teens and late 20s. By age 30, fertility (the ability to get pregnant) starts to decline. This decline happens faster once you reach your mid-30s. By 45, fertility has declined so much that getting pregnant naturally is unlikely.
Families Without Children
While many people think of a family as including children, there are couples who either cannot or choose not to have children. This doesn't make them less of a family, and in fact, this type of family unit is on the rise.
Childless Family
Childless families are families with two partners who cannot have or don't want kids. In the world of family types and dynamics, these families are often forgotten or left out (even though you can still have a family without children).
Proponents of childfreedom posit that choosing not to have children is no more or less selfish than choosing to have children. Choosing to have children may be the more selfish choice, especially when poor parenting risks creating many long term problems for both the children themselves and society at large.
By their mid-40s, customarily considered the likely end of childbearing years (though of course there are exceptions), about 1 in 7 (or 14 percent) never did have any kids.
The idea of bringing another human into the world and the joy of seeing that person go through life is another powerful reason why couples want to have a child. Parents want to see their child grow up and become a productive member of society.