It takes just one discussion for couples to decide not to have children at all, a new research shows.
Researchers from Middlesex University surveyed women who did not have children. They found that 40 percent of them had either not talked about having children, or had only discussed once about it early in their relationship.
"Not having children is obviously a very important decision, and what was interesting from the research was the negligible amount of discussion that couples engaged in - many are agreeing not to have children in one conversation, or in an unspoken way," lead researcher Edina Kurdi from Middlesex University, said, according to the Daily Mail..
Researchers arrived at the conclusion after Kurdi surveyed 75 British women aged 35 and above who were childless. It was an online survey. Kurdi interviewed nine of them face-to-face.
The participants were asked about discussions they had with their current partner about not having children. Kurdi and the team found that 23 of the 63 who responded to the question decided not to have children after one conversation. Three others mentioned they had not talked about the issue at all.
"One possible reason that couples did not need to talk about the issue much is that they could accurately sense their partner did not want children from their beliefs and lifestyle," Kurdi noted.
Very little attention has been paid to the negotiations within romantic relations about not having a family, even though developed countries are facing a general decline in fertility combined with an accelerated rate of childlessness, the researchers added.
