Voluntary Childlessness, Involuntary Childlessness, and Having Children: A Study of Social Perceptions

The present study investigated the way husbands and wives were perceived if they were described as having two children, as voluntarily having no children, or as involuntarily having no children. A social perception paradigm was employed in which a folder was developed containing information about a couple applying for a bank loan in order to purchase a new car. Three versions were constructed, differing only with respect to whether the couple was described as having two children, voluntarily childless, or involuntarily childless. After reading one version of the folder, participants were asked to respond to a series of scales measuring liking, perceived psychological disturbance, adjectives describing general psychological characteristics, and perceived likelihood of getting a divorce within the next ten years, for each of the spouses. Husbands were perceived as more psychologically healthy when they had children than when they had no children, regardless of the reason. Wives were liked less and viewed more negatively on general personality descriptors when they were described as voluntarily childless than when they were involuntarily childless.