Seminar

The decision to become a parent is difficult and often associated with hesitation and uncertainty. In demographic research, uncertainty is commonly captured in childbearing intentions, as many respondents express doubts, whether they intend to have a (another) child in the near future. On the one hand, this uncertainty is considered an important reason for why some intentions remain unfulfilled (i.e., uncertainty weakens the link between intentions and actual behaviours). On the other, the researchers are highly interested in sources of this uncertainty, hoping to better understand how childbearing decisions are made. In particular, external sources such as economic uncertainty or social anomie have been intensively investigated. Much less attention has been paid to the internal, psychological factors. One of such factors may be ambivalence in attitudes toward childbearing.

Ambivalence in attitudes towards childbearing and uncertain childbearing intentions are focal for the research project, funded by the National Science Centre (Poland) and launched in 2020 at the Centre for Individual and Family Life-Course Studies, at the Institute of Psychology of UKSW. The aim of my talk is to present the assumptions, goals and first outcomes of this project. I will briefly summarize main theoretical models of reproductive decision making and discuss distinction between uncertainty, indifference and ambivalence in relation to childbearing intentions. I will outline research activities of my research team, whose members are looking at different psychological factors, important for childbearing motivations, which might lead to weak or uncertain intentions.