Childfree by choice: a review

Abstract

The decision not to have children represents one of the most remarkable changes in the modern family: during the last few decades the number of couples who voluntarily do not want to become parents (usually called ‘childfree’) has drastically increased around the world, becoming an important issue for cultural geography. The present paper presents a review of the childfree choice in order to update the literature with particular regard to the demographic incidence of the phenomenon, the motivations underlying such decisions, the sociological aspects, the traditional stereotypes usually attributed to childfree people, and the real psychological aspects that seem to be the basis on which the decision to remain childfree depends.

Keywords:

• childfree
• childlessness
• childless

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Stacy Eltiti for having read and commented on the review; they are also grateful to Alyson Greiner for her useful comments throughout the manuscript.

Notes

1. Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics used in the social sciences, biology, engineering and political sciences that attempts to mathematically capture behaviour in strategic situations, in which an individual's success in making choices depends on the choices of others.