2026-11-25 –, Drawing Room
In countries with widespread access to modern contraception, childbearing is, for most people, a deliberate choice. Demographic theory has often implicitly assumed that people have clearly defined preferences or desires towards children and are able to articulate their future parenthood plans. For some people, the decision does come easily and can be clearly articulated. However, a growing body of recent theoretical and empirical work suggests that reproductive decisions often involve a significant degree of ambivalence around childbearing desires, and uncertainty regarding fertility intentions.
The study analyses text data, consisting of posts and comments, from an online community on Reddit which is dedicated specifically to individuals who are struggling with the decision of whether or not to embark into parenthood, or to have another child. This corpus represents a large-scale, self-initiated, and naturalistic account of fertility decision and provides a rare opportunity to understand the nature of ambivalence and uncertainty around parenthood and childbearing . Using ‘close reading’ and qualitative thematic analysis, and incorporating insights from the social psychological field of decision making theory we identify the key recurring patterns of ambivalence and sources of uncertainty in the fertility decision making , and the strategies people use to navigate them.
Preliminary findings point to the important influence of cognitive biases, including status quo bias and loss aversion, alongside distinct decision-making styles (rational, intuitive, dependent, avoidant, spontaneous). This study extends existing demographic frameworks and offers new insight into the lived experience of reproductive indecision.
Research Asssistant and Phd Candidate at the School of Demography, Australian National University.