‘Doing it in the right order’: childless men’s intentions regarding family formation

Abstract

In high-income countries, parental age at first birth has increased and this postponement increases the risk of involuntary childlessness or having fewer children than desired. This interview study was conducted in Denmark and Sweden among childless men (n = 29) in their last year of an education. The aim was to explore the role of individual and societal factors on fertility decision-making and men’s reflections on barriers and enablers for earlier family formation. Data were analysed with thematic content analysis. Almost all participants wanted children in the future. Overall, there was a desire to follow the ‘right chronology’: get educated, having a stable relationship, employment and a good financial status before having children. While most men felt mature enough to have children, they were still not ready. Influences from within the inner social circle, societal expectations, the need for security and stability and being ready to give up freedom and individuality were factors that affected participants’ preferred timing of parenthood. Most men did not have suggestions for how earlier family formation could be supported. Results suggest a gap between the ideal biological and ideal social age of family formation that may lead to unfulfilled parenthood aspirations.

Keywords:

• Family intentions
• fertility awareness
• decision-making
• men
• qualitative study Nordic Countries

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the men who agreed to be interviewed and shared their thoughts about future parenthood. We thank Christian Dudel, Research Scientist, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and Sebastian Klüsener, Research Director, the Federal Institute for Population Research for providing estimates for men’s age at childbirth in Finland.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare regarding this work.

Additional information

Funding

This research study is part of the ReproUnion collaborative study, co-financed by the European Union, Interreg V ÖKS. The funders had no influence on data collection, analysis or manuscript writing.