Studies show why parents regret having children

Created: 04/27/2022, 17:50

By: Alina Schroeder

Some parents regret having children in their lifetime.

According to studies, there are various reasons.

(Iconic image) © Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa

It is said that children enrich life.

But some parents probably don't see it that way: they regret parenthood afterwards.

This is shown by study results.

Kassel – For many people, one thing is certain when planning their life: they want to have children and start a family.

In 2020, for example, a total of 773,144 children were born in Germany, according to the Federal Statistical Office.

However, not all people seem to enjoy their parenting and end up regretting having children.

Back in 2015, an Israeli study called Regretting Motherhood: A Sociopolitical Analysis sparked heated debate online.

Under the Twitter hashtag "regretting motherhood", many people online were outraged by the statements made by young mothers in the study.

However, as other studies show, the phenomenon of regretful parenthood is widespread.

Study results: People regret parenthood - but the desire to have children is still high

In order to analyze this phenomenon in more detail, surveys have been carried out on representative samples in the USA and Germany in recent years.

These indicate that the percentage of parents who regret having children is around seven to eight percent.

Young people were also asked about this in Poland.

Findings were collated and published in the international and multidisciplinary online journal Plos One.

As the results show, the percentage of parents who regret parenthood is higher in Poland than in the US or Germany.

There, the study with a representative sample of people between 18 and 40 years of age was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Poznań.

The question was: If you could go back in time, would you choose to have children again?

13.6 percent of Polish women and men answered "No", 86.4 percent would do it again.

The 13.6 percent included people with mental illnesses, such as those who suffer or have suffered in the past from parental burnout.

Financial emergencies after the birth of a child also played a major role, as new parents were suddenly confronted with higher expenses.

These are the two main reasons for regrets about parenthood in the Polish survey.

Study in Poland: More than 13 percent would not have children again

In the USA, a particularly large number of children live in families: According to the Gallup Organization, one of the leading market and opinion research institutes based in Washington DC, in the US, around 74 percent of adults there had at least one child in 2013 - 19 percent of those surveyed hoping to get more in the future.

Only five percent stated in the survey that they had no desire to have children.

A similar survey was carried out in various European countries, including Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, among people between the ages of 18 and 40 by the Population Institute Väestöliitto in Finland together with the Swiss Center for Social Sciences: Seven percent of men and five percent of women confirmed it not wanting to have children.

However, the proportion of people who do not want to have children is extremely low in comparison.

The available data show that this is still a universal need of adults.

Parents regret having children - studies reveal reasons

However, like many other important life decisions, the decision to become a parent carries with it a degree of risk.

Many people envision parenthood differently than it ultimately is.

Divorce from their partner, relocation, illness, new financial hurdles as well as the upbringing and day-to-day care of their offspring present many parents, especially those with their first child, with unprecedented challenges.

These are some of the reasons some people later regret having children in the first place.

But, retrospectively, would they decide against parenthood altogether?

In a poll conducted by the Gallup Organization, Americans over 45 who already have children were asked how many children they would have liked to have given their current knowledge.

One of the possible answers was "zero" - according to the data, this was chosen by seven percent of the people surveyed.

Disability of personal career: According to the study, parents would decide against children

A similar survey was conducted in Germany in 2016 by the opinion research institute YouGov on a representative sample.

The authors asked the participants who already have children to respond to the following statement: If I could decide again today, I would not want to have children.

It finally turned out that eight percent of the German parents completely agreed with this statement.

This group gave the reason that parenthood limited their personal and professional development.

According to the results of the survey, regrets about parenthood were also more common among people with a lower income, below 1500 euros per household.

The German study thus suggests that one of the reasons for regretting parenthood, in particular, is the belief that as a parent, one cannot live the life one desires.

Another study shows that stubborn children are more successful as adults.

As the study shows, financial hardship and mental illness are among the main reasons why some people would not decide to have children again.

On the whole, these seem to make up only a small part, despite everything.

According to the information, most parents would decide to have children again at any time.

(as)