A new study from Michigan State University has found that one in five adults have chosen to remain "childfree," and apparently made that decision quite early into their adulthood.
While most made that decision in their twenties, the survey found that some made that choice as far back as in their teens!
Jennifer Watling Neal, a psychologist at MSU and one half of the husband-and-wife team that published the study this month in Scientific Reports states, "Doctors will oftentimes deny the request of women to receive voluntary sterilization, especially when they're younger … with the idea that 'Well, it's irreversible, and you might change your mind.'
"Our study is suggesting that is pretty misinformed and paternalistic, given that many women are making this decision early in life and stick with it, and they know what they want."
She continued saying, "What's unique about this study is in our research, we've really tried to disentangle childfree adults (who are actively choosing not to have children) from other types of adults that don't have kids, and what we've done is we've focused on whether people want children, so we actually measure that directly."
When childfree adults were asked how old they were when they decided they didn't want kids, more than half said it was in their teens and 20s.
The average age for those women who said they decided not to have kids early on was 38 years old, which suggests that "early articulator women are older and report that they made the decision to be childfree at least 18 years ago."
LISTEN on the Audacy App
