You Don't Have To Be Childfree For Not Having Biological Children : An interview-based study on young adults’ reasoning on having children

This study aims to investigate the rationalization behind young adults' decision on whether or not they want children. The goal is to help contribute to previous studies on how reproductive mindsets differ based on whether or not a person wants children. This is a qualitative study rooted in interviews with eleven women and one man all aged 19 to 31 years of age. The theories used to analyze the results are concentrating on the terms expected lifeline, biological destiny, self-fulfillment, active mothering and intense mothering. The results of this study show that the personal definitions of "success" in life do not differ drastically based on the desire to have children. Additionally, the informants all had similar expectations of what was "needed" from life, in a financial sense, to achieve desired living conditions before having children. What did matter was what a person found self-fulfilling and their self-image in determining their desire for children. The results also show that the informants had experienced similar interactions with the pressures of societal norms on expected lifeline and that they worry about not living up to the notion of what a good parent is like.