Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Sociology Compass

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Publication Date

9-2-2012

First Page

718

Last Page

727

Issue Number

9

Volume Number

6

Abstract/ Summary

Decisions about whether to have or rear children, as well as perceptions of people who choose not to parent are linked to a variety of social processes and identities. We review literature from a variety of disciplines that focuses on voluntarily childless adults. Early research in this area, emerging in the 1970s, focused almost exclusively on heterosexual women and utilized a childless rather than a childfree framework. Later work saw a shift to a “childless-by-choice” or “childfree” framework, emphasizing that for some, not being parents is an active choice rather than an accident. While more recent research includes lesbian women and gay and heterosexual men, greater diversity within studies of adults without children is one suggested focus for future work in this area.

Citation/Publisher Attribution

Blackstone, A. and Stewart, M. D. (2012), Choosing to be Childfree: Research on the Decision Not to Parent. Sociology Compass, 6: 718–727. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2012.00496.x

Publisher Statement

© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com

DOI

10.1111/j.1751-9020.2012.00496.x

Version

post-print (i.e. final draft post-refereeing with all author corrections and edits)

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