title: Voluntary and nonvoluntary childlessness:  personality vs. structural implications.
abstract: "A 'deviant behavior' interpretation of childlessness has led many researchers to view this phenomenon as psychosocial in nature.  Married persons who decide to remain childless are seen as having a unique set of personality and behavioral characteristics that go beyond the simple decision not to have children.  An alternative explanation for these differences could center around the structural factor of childlessness per se, in that a family with one or more children may be a totally different social system than the dyadic-type relationships which comprise the childless couple.  This paper reports research findings from an empirical test of the extent to which a national sample of [U.S.] respondents who are members of voluntary or nonvoluntary childless couples differ in terms of 12 psychosocial characteristics selected either on the basis of past research findings, or predicted on the basis of these findings....Findings showed that the two groups of respondents did strongly differ, but in ways opposite to those predicted on the basis of past research.  An argument is presented that these strong, but contrary findings might be better explained by structural, as opposed to psychosocial, factors."
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Heller
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: H P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Chalfant
mesh_terms: D000569:Americas; D001519:Behavior; D001723:Birth Rate; D003710:Demography; D019049:Developed Countries; D003906:Developing Countries; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005193:Family Planning Services; D005195:Family Relations; D005298:Fertility; D007246:Infertility; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D009656:North America; D010298:Parity; D010551:Personality; D011153:Population; D011154:Population Characteristics; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011584:Psychology; D012098:Reproduction; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D014481:United States
keywords: Americas; Behavior; Comparative Studies; Demographic Factors; Developed Countries; Developing Countries; Family And Household; Family Characteristics; Family Relationships; Fertility; Fertility Measurements; Infertility; Interpersonal Relations; Literature Review; North America; Northern America; Nulliparity; Parity; Personality; Population; Population Characteristics; Population Dynamics; Psychological Factors; Psychosocial Factors; Reproduction; Reproductive Behavior; Research Report; United States; Voluntary Childlessness