| Description |
Prejudice against childfree individuals has significant social consequences, including, but not limited to, discrimination, exclusion from social policies and groups, unfair workplace practices, and diminished well-being. Understanding the predictors of such prejudice is crucial, particularly those that transcend cultural norms and vary between countries. This study investigates prejudice towards childfree people and the social pressure to become a parent through a cross-cultural lens. A sample of 1,400 participants from Portugal, the UK, Italy, and Poland was recruited via Prolific. Key predictors examined included parental status, sexual orientation, attitudes toward hypothetical childlessness, expectations of becoming a parent, religiosity, and the perceived importance of children to one’s family's happiness. Predictors explained only a small portion of the variance (2–7%) in perceived social pressure to have children. Notably, negative attitudes toward personal childlessness predicted social pressure in Portugal and the UK, while parental status was a significant predictor in Poland and Italy. The importance of a child for one's family's happiness was a significant predictor only in Italy. In contrast, prejudice toward childfree individuals was more strongly predicted, with predictors accounting for 34–58% of the variance across countries. The importance of children to one’s family's happiness emerged as the most consistent and robust predictor of prejudice, with additional contributions from attitudes toward personal childlessness (Poland, Italy), religiosity (Poland, UK, Italy), and parental status (Italy). These findings suggest that cultural differences influence the degree and nature of social pressure, while the perception of children as central to family happiness is a cross-cultural driver of prejudice toward childfree people. The disconnect between experiencing social pressure and being prejudiced underscores the complexity of societal attitudes. The results are discussed in the context of social and evolutionary psychology, offering insights into the persistence of these biases and potential strategies for their mitigation.
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