The Impact of the First Birth: Married and Single Women Preferring Childlessness, One Child, or Two Children

Abstract

This study examines the impact of a 1st child on 3 groups of women: 36 voluntarily childless wives and 42 single women wanting to remain childless; 18 mothers of 1 child by choice and 18 single women who want an only child; and 36 2-child mothers and 42 single women who want to have 2 children. As expected the voluntarily childless women whether married or single rated the costs of a child higher and the satisfaction lower than did all other women. While married early deciders and married postponers among voluntarily childless wives had similar perceptions of the disadvantages in having a child wives childless throug postponement were more like mothers in their attitudes about the psychological benefits gained in having a child and their attitudes to outside employment. Single women wanting to be childless were more like married early deciders in their perceptions than married postponers. Mothers of 1 child by choice were not as similar to the voluntarily childless as expected. Mothers of 1 child by choice revealed childrearing attitudes that showed them to be most different from the voluntarily childless in their perceptions of the costs of having a child but as more likely than 2-child mothers to stress emotional satisfactions personal development benefits and gains to the marital relationship in having a child. (authors)

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