Personality and Childbearing Motivation - A discourse of justifications

• In Event: Evaluating community sanctions and measures

Abstract

The motivations leading to parenthood or childlessness (life without children by choice) are numerous, diverse, and formulated according to various social, cultural, and psychological considerations. This study assumes that there is a significant personality structure at the base of these considerations. In Israel – a pronatalist country, life without children by choice, is considered to be a social deviance.
The study examined the relationship between the individual's personality dimensions according to the Eysenckian Big 3 model, sensation seeking, cognitive style, and childbearing motivation (negative and positive). The participants were married couples and single women with children, as well as married couples and single women without children, using a "snowball" sample.
The initial research findings present a personality profile of women without children by choice significantly higher on P (Psychoticism) scale and on ES scale of Sensation Seeking, with low positive and high negative childbearing motivation, compared to women with children. It appears that P scale is most significant regarding the type and intensity of one’s childbearing motivation.
A further examination of the research population was made throughout a content analysis of a Childlessness Blog. The analysis shows women without children by choice, to be centralistic and self-focused. In their eyes, children symbolize loss of freedom, loss of identity, loss of time and lack of self-fulfillment. Children are perceived as a threat to their way of life because they consume time, financial resources, and emotional energy. This discourse of losses aligns with personality traits such as egocentricity, impulsivity, emotional coldness, and impersonal attitude – all key traits within P scale.

Author

• Saray Harel, Ashkelon Academic Collage, Bar Ilan University