Opting Out of Parenthood: Lifestyle Choices, Global Concerns and Navigating Precarity

Maria Letizia Tanturri , University of Padova
Annalisa Donno, University of Padova

Italy is one of the countries where childless prevalence is booming. To explain this boom, sizeable literature emphasizes the role played by socio-economic factors, economic uncertainty and gender inequality, while recent studies suggest a surging inclination to childfree life or the emerging of environmental concerns. Drawing on a sample of 4,000 25-45-years-old childless individuals from the web-based ChildZero Survey (2025), this paper investigates the inner motivations underlying the intention to remain childless among the younger cohort in a comprehensive and multidimensional way. Using a complete battery of 30 items, an exploratory factor analysis identifies four latent motivational dimensions: 1) preference for a childfree lifestyle; 2) concern about economic uncertainty; 3) family concerns; and 4) global and ecological worries. Linear models linking socio-demographic and psychological characteristics to each dimension show that motivational patterns vary markedly by gender and age. Women exhibit stronger orientations toward both a childfree lifestyle and global-ecological concerns, suggesting that aversion to parenthood among women intertwines with moral responsibility and reflexivity toward the future. Younger respondents express higher scores on these same dimensions, indicating that new value-based and environmental motives are emerging more distinctly among younger cohorts. Conversely, concerns about uncertainty and precarity remain more closely tied to structural vulnerability, reflecting persistent social and economic inequalities. Overall, the findings highlight the coexistence of distinct motivational profiles: one rooted in self-realization, another in structural insecurity, and a third linked to ecological awareness. This evidence advances understanding of the changing meaning of childlessness in low-fertility societies and its policy implications.

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 Presented in Session 54. Flash Session Fertility, Values and Life Goals