Despite theoretical accounts asserting the importance of children for the wellbeing of individuals as they age, research evidence suggests that children may be inconsequential when it comes to loneliness. Yet, there is reason to expect some subgroups may be more vulnerable to the impact of childlessness than others and this may also differ depending on the type of loneliness being assessed. This paper addresses the relationship between childlessness and social and emotional loneliness in middle and later life, including differential vulnerability associated with age, gender and marital/partner status. The study drew on data from three waves (2007, 2012 and 2018) of the Canadian General Social Survey for a nationally representative sample of adults aged 45 and older (N = 49,892). In general, childlessness assumed greater importance with regard to social than emotional loneliness. Women reported lower levels of social loneliness in conjunction with childlessness than men. Further, childlessness was associated with higher levels of overall and social loneliness among older than middle-aged adults. Fewer interactions were evident between marital/partner status and childlessness. Among women specifically, those who were co-habiting, separated/divorced or never married reported lower levels of social loneliness than their married counterparts. In contrast, childlessness was linked to greater emotional loneliness only among separated/divorced men and widowed women. Overall, our results suggest that having children available does matter for feelings of loneliness in middle and later life but that the relationship varies and is contingent on the social contexts (age, gender, marital/partner status) and the type of loneliness (social, emotional) involved.

During the past decades, childless old age has attracted a considerable amount of scholarly interest. However, few studies address this phenomenon in Southern European familistic welfare states, where there is a pervading expectation that family members, especially spouses and children, care for their older relatives. The present cross-sectional study aims to analyse the relationship between childlessness, social networks and wellbeing in a sample of 612 Portuguese individuals aged 65 and over, comprising two sub-samples: parents (N = 540) and childless (N = 72). Data were collected through a research protocol that included a sociodemographic questionnaire, a personal social network assessment inventory, and several validated psychometric measures of psychological wellbeing focusing on mental health, loneliness, depression and satisfaction with life. Childless older adults' social networks are smaller but more diverse, including a more significant proportion of friends and neighbours. No differences were found in perceived support from significant others, but network reciprocity was lower among non-parents. The childless subsample also reported more feelings of loneliness and less life satisfaction, but regression analysis showed that parenthood status, per se, is not significantly related to any outcome measures. Besides the central role of sociodemographic characteristics and personal functioning measures in explaining psychological wellbeing variance, several network factors were also identified as influential predictors. Implications for micro-level network intervention and macro-level social policy making are discussed.

In most countries, men are more likely to be childless than women. Understanding how this inequality arises is important given the significance of parenthood for individuals’ lives. The objective of this study was to explore how three prominent explanations for sex inequalities in childlessness relate to the Sex Gap in Childlessness (SGC) in Sweden. The three explanations examined were sex ratio imbalance (more men than women), mismeasurement of fatherhood (inequalities in registration) and partnership differences (inequality in multi-partner fertility). Administrative register data for cohorts born in 1945–1974 were used. The population was restricted to men and women who were born in Sweden or arrived prior to the age of 15, and all registered childbearing partnerships were examined. To explore the possible significance of the three explanations, counter-factual standardization was used. Of the three explanations examined, the population sex ratio had the largest positive impact on the SGC, while multi-partner fertility had a negative impact. The results show that inequalities in the sex ratio can explain about 20–34% of the SGC depending on cohort. Inequalities in registration of fathers explain about 9–24% of the SGC depending on cohort. Finally, results show that women are slightly more likely to have multiple partners, and that this behaviour has a substantial minimizing effect on the SGC (minimizing it by 6–65%). To the authors’ knowledge this was the first paper to estimate the scope of the impacts of these three mechanisms on the SGC. Differences in multi-partner fertility have in many instances been used as an explanation for men’s higher childlessness. This study shows that women have slightly more childbearing partners than men, and that this actually leads to a smaller SGC in the studied population.

The decision of whether to grow old in one's home (also referred to as ageing in place (AIP)) or relocating to an institution is an ongoing negotiation process, which involves residential decisions and adaptation. This research aims to explore how childless older adults in rural China choose between AIP and institutionalisation. Through a qualitative study conducted in rural China among childless older adults, we explored the reasons why they make certain residential choices and how they adapted during the decision process. Twenty-five childless participants (aged 60–83) were interviewed. Findings suggested that they referred to the term ku (literally meaning ‘bitterness’; and a metaphor referring to ‘conducting farming and farm-related activities’) to explain their residential decisions. If a person could endure ku – sustain food and basic living through farming and farm-related activities, they tended to choose to age in place; otherwise, they chose to relocate to institutions. Ku represents a sense of mastery, encompassing the stressfulness and suffering aspect that requires adaptation. Three adaptive strategies were identified: (a) positive reappraising of the negative aspect of ku, (b) routinising ku, and (c) transcending the narrative of ku into a toughness identity. Our findings suggest that childless older adults struggled to achieve residential mastery while making residential decisions, even though a sense of mastery was shaped by the individual and structural constrictions.

The number of relatives and geographical proximity between them affects informal support provided to older persons. In this study, we investigate whether (a) childless persons and parents living remotely from their adult children experience similar shortages in informal support, and (b) whether neighbours, friends and other non-family helpers compensate for these shortages. On the basis of Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) data for 12 European countries, we estimate the probability and amount of informal non-financial support received by persons aged 65 and over who remain childless or live at different distances to their children. The contribution of non-family individuals is rather complementary to the help from family. Parents residing in the proximity of their children rely almost exclusively on family; as the geographical distance between adult children and older parents increases, the probability and amount of non-family support increase as well. But childless individuals differ from parents of remotely living children: the former rely on smaller support networks and resort more often to other relatives than the latter. Non-family individuals compensate for the scarcity of informal support only in the case of parents of distant children, but not in the case of childless individuals.

The social networks of older people are a significant influence on their health and wellbeing. Adult children are an important element in their parent's network and provide the majority of informal care. The morphology of personal networks alters with age, employment, gender and relationships. Not having children automatically reduces both vertical familial structure and affects the wider formal and informal social links that children can bring. Childless men are missing from gerontological, reproduction, sociological and psychological research. These fields have all mainly focused on family and women. This paper reports on an auto/biographical qualitative study framed by biographical, feminist, gerontological and lifecourse approaches. Data were gathered from semi-structured biographical interviews with 14 self-defined involuntarily childless men aged between 49 and 82 years old. A latent thematic analysis highlighted the complex intersections between childlessness and individual agency, relationships and socio-cultural structures. The impact of major lifecourse events and non-events had significant implications for how childless people perform and view their social and self-identity. I argue that involuntary childlessness affects the social, emotional and relational aspects of men's lived experience across the lifecourse.

From an evolutionary perspective, childlessness may be considered a failure, as it implies that there will be no direct transmission of one’s genetic material to later generations. It is also a pressing social issue, because in many contemporary advanced societies, levels of childlessness have increased, and particularly so among men. The absence of a partner is naturally a fundamental determinant of childlessness. Empirical evidence on how childlessness relates to individuals’ partnership histories is nevertheless limited. This issue was analysed with Finnish population register data, which allow the complete cohabitation and marriage histories of individuals from age 18 years to be observed. For women and men born between 1969 and 1971, logistic regression models were estimated for childlessness at age 40 by partnership histories in terms of various stages in the process of union formation and dissolution, and accounting for several socioeconomic variables. A strong link between union histories and childlessness was found, with short partnership spells raising the risk of not becoming a parent. Later age when leaving the parental home raised female childlessness, while a short first-union duration related more strongly to male childlessness. These findings may be considered as providing insights into how specific life-history strategies affect reproductive outcomes, and highlight the need to develop new approaches to understand this feature of social inequality.

This article tries to construct an ethical framework to address the issue of infertility through a creative use of Thomas Aquinas’ thought. Involuntary childlessness is one of the forgotten issues among Christian communities in West and Central Africa. Starting with the scientific definition of infertility, the article shows the gender differences and biases in the perception of childlessness in that region. Although infertility equally affects men and women, the latter, most of the time, are blamed for it. Although Scripture contains some ambivalent elements concerning infertility, on the whole it offers valuable insights by presenting childlessness as a type of life also blessed by God. Likewise, the language of the church since Vatican II has done away with the hierarchical view of the ends of marriage (or the idea that procreation is the primary goal of marriage over and against the unity of the spouses). Aquinas teaches us about the true nature of marriage and the value of childlessness. In addition, Aquinas’ understanding of love helps articulate areas that could guide infertile individuals and childless couples, on the one hand, and Christian communities, on the other hand, who have to deal with childless members.

Childless individuals are often depicted as ‘selfish’ as they opt out of raising children in favour of investing resources in themselves. Yet no research has investigated whether this claim holds in domains of social life such as intergenerational family support. Using data from the Generations and Gender Survey for 11 European countries, this article examines differences between childless and non-childless individuals in the provision of financial, practical and emotional transfers to their elderly parents. Results support the idea that the childless are more prone to provide upward support than individuals with children. Specifically, estimates from multivariate logistic regression and propensity score specifications suggest that, ceteris paribus, childless adults are about 20–40 per cent more likely to provide support to their parents, with the association driven by transfers to elderly mothers. These findings enrich the literature on childlessness and ageing, and support the view that researchers and policy makers should take into more consideration not only what childless people receive or need in old age, but also what they provide as middle-aged adults.

Western societies are ageing rapidly. Today people do not only live longer, they also have fewer children. These developments exert considerable pressure on welfare states. Children have usually been the mainstay of old age support, especially when there is no partner. We thus face new challenges: On which support networks can a growing number of childless older people rely? (How) can the lack of children be compensated in the informal social network? What role does the state play and how is informal and formal support linked? Our comparative analyses of the support networks of childless elders are based on the first two waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, including 14,394 people with (instrumental) activities of daily living limitations aged 50 and over from 12 European countries. On average, 10 per cent of older Europeans today have no children. Sporadic informal support for these elders is often taken over by the extended family, friends and neighbours, and thus the lack of children is compensated within the social network. Intense care tasks, however, are more likely provided by professional providers, especially in the case of childless older people. In countries with low social service provision, childless elders are therefore likely to experience a lack of (formal) support, especially when depending on vital care.

Given increases in childlessness, we ask if and how the permanently childless substitute for adult children in their later-life support networks. Previous research finds that they are disadvantaged on several network and support indicators. Yet, the role of different substitution mechanisms remains unclear. We examine two substitution mechanisms: substitution through adjustments of network size/composition and through higher efficiency of personal ties. Data are from the German Ageing Survey (childless: N = 1,886; parents without/with residentially proximate children: N = 4,437/8,337). Our descriptive and regression results on network size/composition and the number of potential informational and emotional supporters show that both mechanisms play a role: the childless have more friends and extended kin, and they are more likely to consider them as potential supporters, than parents. Across cohorts or age groups, the relative effect size of network size/composition versus tie efficiency changes. Parents with no children nearby constitute a mixed type that shows similarities to the childless on some indicators of social support and to parents with at least one child nearby on other indicators. Our findings provide a foundation for better predicting how current demographic trends affect future scenarios of social support in later life and for identifying the future need for formal care services. Thus, they are relevant for social scientists and policy makers alike.

This article, by Mercedes Robba and Mariana Lavalle, deals with the civil right to reproduction and procreative liberty aroused by the Argentinian legislation and Court's decisions, in the light of the new concept of family in the country. This contribution focuses exclusively on the barriers to equal access to reproductive health in Argentina, taking into account infertility, infecundity and childlessness, according to the right to raise a family in conditions of equality and freedom.

Using data from a Canadian national sample, participation in three activities - going to public places, travel, and going on outings - in a sample of 4,258 respondents aged 55 and over is examined. OLS regression results indicate that the childless go to public places and travel as frequently as parents and go on outings more frequently than parents. Significant differences are also found for gender, marital status, health, and education. Logistic regression results indicate that the childless are more likely to seek companionship with friends and other relatives than are parents. However, gender and marital status are more often significant predictors of source of companionship than is parent status. We conclude that the childless negotiate unique social participation networks which ensure social participation outside the home.

This study examines the perceptions of childlessness reported by 287 childless respondents aged 55 and over who were part of a larger study (n - 678) on aging and social support. Sixty-seven per cent (n = 193) report advantages to childlessness and 64 per cent (n = 185) report disadvantages. Qualitative data show that key perceived advantages are fewer worries or problems, financial benefits, greater freedom, and career flexibility. The major disadvantages are lack of companionship/being alone/loneliness, lack of support and care when older, and missing the experience of parenthood. Bivariate and multivariate analyses of the effects that gender, marital status, age, and childless status (childless by choice or by circumstance) have on the perceived advantages and disadvantages of having no children show that there is variability in perceived advantages only. When we compare specific perceived advantages and disadvantages to related experience, only some perceived benefits (financial advantage) are associated with actual experience. Findings are discussed in the context of actually experiencing costs and benefits versus sharing widely-held beliefs about childlessness.

With the increase of childlessness in European societies, its consequences have become a matter of concern. Studies in this field, however, have concentrated on what childless people lack and need in terms of social, financial and moral support. In contrast, this article focuses on what childless people give to their families, friends, unrelated others and to society at large. Using 2004 data on social support and financial transfers given and received by people aged 50 or more years in ten European countries from the Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), the analyses show that the support networks of childless older people tend to be somewhat weaker than those of parents and that links with members of the younger generations in the family are stronger for parents than for those without children. The results also indicate, however, that the differences in transfer behaviour between parents and childless adults are small, and that the support networks of the childless are more diverse than those of parents, and characterised by stronger links with ascendants and lateral relatives and with non-relatives. Moreover, people without children tend to be more intensely involved in charities and comparable organisations.