Childless or childfree? Paths to voluntary childlessness in Italy

This paper is aimed at obtaining insights into childlessness in Italy. After addressing theoretical issues and presenting the prevalence of childlessness, different paths to childlessness are outlined, using data from an ad-hoc survey carried out in five Italian cities in 2002. Subsequently individual characteristics and reasons associated with childlessness are investigated. As many as a third of the interviewees, who live with a partner and do not suffer from any particular physical impediment, are voluntary childlessness. These women, in contrast to mothers, appear to be less religious and to have less religious partners; they tend to come from smaller families of origin; to have cohabitated at least once in life; to have entered their first union later; to have had, in the initial period of their union, unstable occupations and flexible work schedules, and little leisure time, both for themselves and for their partner. In several other cases, childlessness is the unintended outcome of delayed decision to have a child or the result of adverse external circumstances, particularly fragility of partnership.