‘Do I want children later in life?’ Reproductive intentions of 1700 adolescents

Abstract

Purpose

In the past decades, a positive attitude towards having children has been reported in young people. The current generation of adolescents is increasingly concerned about environmental cataclysm which may have an impact on their desire for children. The purpose of this study is to depict the current attitudes in Flemish adolescents towards having children.

Materials and methods

All secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium) were invited to distribute an anonymous online survey among their pupils in the last two years of secondary education. In total, 1700 adolescents participated and provided quantitative and qualitative data on their reproductive intentions.

Results

Most pupils expressed a desire for children (60.2%), 24.7% were undecided and 10.8% were not willing to have children. Significantly more boys than girls would like to have children (67.0% versus 61.7%, p < 0.01). Adolescents who were uncertain about having children or not interested, reported financial reasons and loss of freedom as most important reasons.

Conclusions

While most adolescents would like to have children in the future, one in four adolescents is undecided and one in ten indicates a wish to remain childless; reasons for wanting children are rather personal, reasons for not wanting children are rather pragmatic.

SHORT CONDENSATION

A desire for parenthood is no longer the norm: 60% of Flemish adolescents would like to build a family, but many are considering a future without children.

Keywords:

• Parenthood
• intention
• attitude
• adolescent
• childbearing

Disclosure statement

There is no conflict of interest to declare.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Zenodo at http://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.10417208.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Practice Oriented Scientific Research (PWO) of VIVES University of Applied Sciences.