We perform a content analysis of twenty marriage and family textbooks published between 1950 and 2000 to study how the voluntarily childless are presented in undergraduate courses. Throughout the time period studied, independence, pursuit of a career, and romance were prominent themes in the representation of voluntary childlessness. Other themes emerged specific to each decade—the 1950s portrayed parenthood as a challenge, while the 1990s concentrated on alleviating negative stereotypes of the voluntarily childless.
S.K. Houseknecht , "Voluntary Childlessness-Toward a Theoretical Integration," Journal of Family Issues3 (1982): 459-71.
2.
J. E. Veevers, "Voluntary Childless Wives: An Exploratory Study," Sociology and Social Research 57 (1973): 356-66; T. B. Heaton, C. K. Jacobson, and K. Holland, "Persistence and Change in Decisions to Remain Childless," Journal of Marriage and the Family 61 (1999): 531-39.
3.
P.N. Ritchey and C.S. Stokes, "Correlates of Childlessness and Expectations to Remain Childless: U.S. 1967," Social Forces52 (1974): 349-56.
4.
W. D. Mosher and C. A. Bachrach, "Childlessness in the United States: Estimates from the National Survey of Family Growth," Journal of Family Issues 3 (1982): 517-43; D. L. Poston, Jr., "Voluntary and Involuntary Childlessness among Catholic and Non-Catholic Women: Are the Patterns Converging?" Social Biology 37 (1990): 251-65; V. Krishnan, "Religious Homogamy and Voluntary Childlessness in Canada," Sociological Perspectives 36 (1993): 83-93; S. L. D. Rovi, "Taking No for an Answer: Using Negative Reproductive Intentions to Study the Childless/Childfree," Population Research and Policy Review 13 (1994): 343-65.
5.
Mosher and Bachrach, "Childlessness in the United States," 532; Poston, Jr., "Voluntary and Involuntary Childlessness," 259; Krishnan, "Religious Homogamy," 91.
6.
Mosher and Bachrach, "Childlessness in the United States," 532; Rovi, "Taking No for an Answer," 355-56.
7.
K. G. Mommsen, "Differentials in Fertility among Black Doctorates," Social Biology 20 (1975): 20-29; D. L. Poston, Jr. and K. B. Kramer, "Voluntary and Involuntary Childlessness in the United States, 1955-1973," Social Biology 30 (1983): 290-306.
8.
J. E. Veevers, "Differential Childlessness by Color: A Further Examination," Social Biology 18 (1971): 285-91; R. L. Boyd, "Racial Differences in Childlessness: A Centennial Review," Sociological Perspectives 32 (1989): 183-99.
9.
Mosher and Bachrach, "Childlessness in the United States," 532.
10.
Ritchey and Stokes, "Correlates of Childlessness," 352.
11.
D.L. Poston , Jr. and K. Trent, "International Variability in Childlessness: A Descriptive and Analytical Study," Journal of Family Issues3 (1982): 473-91.
12.
Mosher and Bachrach, "Childlessness in the United States," 537; Krishnan, "Religious Homogamy," 86; Veevers, "Differential Childlessness by Color," 302. Poston, Jr. and Kramer, "Voluntary and Involuntary Childlessness."
13.
Heaton, Jacobson, and Holland, "Persistence and Change," 534.
14.
S. Stobert and A. Kemeny, "Childfree by Choice," Canadian Social Trends69 (2003): 7-10.
15.
D. F. Polit, "Stereotypes Relating to Family-Size Status," Journal of Marriage and the Family 40 (1978): 105-14; J. Blake, "Is Zero Preferred? American Attitudes Toward Childlessness in the 1970s," Journal of Marriage and the Family 41 (1979): 245-57; P. H. Jamison, L. R. Franzini, and R. M. Kaplan, "Some Assumed Characteristics of Voluntarily Childfree Women and Men," Psychology of Women Quarterly 4 (1979): 266-73; L. G. Calhoun and J. W. Selby, "Voluntary Childlessness, Involuntary Childlessness, and Having Children: A Study of Social Perceptions," Family Relations 29 (1980): 181-83; V. J. Callan, "Perceptions of Parents, the Voluntarily and Involuntarily Childless: A Multidimensional Scaling Analysis," Journal of Marriage and the Family 47 (1985): 1045-50; C. Lampman and S. Dowling-Guyer, "Attitudes Toward Voluntary and Involuntary Childlessness," Basic and Applied Social Psychology 17 (1995): 213-22.
16.
Polit, "Stereotypes Relating to Family-Size Status," 108; Callan, "Perceptions of Parents," 1048.
17.
Ibid.; Calhoun and Selby, "Voluntary Childlessness," 182; Lampman and Dowling-Guyer, "Attitudes Toward Voluntary and Involuntary Childlessness," 216.
18.
Polit, "Stereotypes Relating to Family-Size Status," 111.
19.
Jamison, Franzini, and Kaplan, "Some Assumed Characteristics," 267 and 271; Calhoun and Selby, "Voluntary Childlessness," 182; Callan, "Perceptions of Parents," 1048; Lampman and Dowling-Guyer, "Attitudes Toward Voluntary and Involuntary Childlessness, 216."
20.
Calhoun and Selby, "Voluntary Childlessness," 1049. Callan, "Perceptions of Parents" 182;
21.
Blake, "Is Zero Preferred?," 251.
22.
Ibid.; Polit, "Stereotypes Relating to Family-Size Status," 110.
23.
Blake, "Is Zero Preferred? " 251.
24.
Ibid.; Polit, "Stereotypes Relating to Family-Size Status," 110.
25.
Ibid.; Callan, "Perceptions of Parents," 1049.
26.
J. E. Veevers, "The Moral Careers of Voluntarily Childless Wives: Notes on the Defense of a Variant Moral View," The Family Coordinator 24 (1975): 473-87; S. K. Houseknecht, "Reference Group Support for Voluntarily Childlessness: Evidence for Conformity," Journal of Marriage and the Family 39 (1977): 285-92; R. H. Magarick and R. A. Brown, "Social and Emotional Aspects of Voluntary Childlessness in Vasectomized Childless Men," Journal of Biosocial Science 13 (1981): 157-67; V. J. Callan, "Voluntary Childlessness: Early Articulator and Postponing Couples," Journal of Biosocial Science 16 (1984): 501-09; M. D. Somers, "A Comparison of Voluntarily Childfree Adults and Parents," Journal of Marriage and the Family 55 (1993): 643-50; K. Park, "Stigma Management Among the Voluntarily Childless," Sociological Perspectives 45 (2002): 21-45.
27.
Callan, "Voluntary Childlessness: Early Articulator and Postponing Couples," 507; Somers, "A Comparison," 647.
28.
Veevers, "The Moral Careers," 477; Park, "Stigma Management," 35.
29.
D. M. Klein and W. L. Smith. "Historical Trends in the Marriage and Family Textbook Literature, 1887-1980," Family Relations 34 (1985): 211-19; S. A. Mann, M. D. Grimes, A. A. Kemp, and P. J. Jenkins, "Paradigm Shifts in Family Sociology? Evidence from Three Decades of Family Textbooks, Journal of Family Issues 18 (1997): 315-49.
30.
M. F. Peters, "The Black Family-Perpetuating the Myths: An Analysis of Family Sociology Textbook Treatment of Black Families," The Family Coordinator 23 (1974): 349-57; P. L. Dressel and W. R. Avant, "Aging and College Family Textbooks," The Family Coordinator 27 (1978): 427-35; J. Nolan, M. Coleman, and L. Ganong. "The Presentation of Stepfamilies in Marriage and Family Textbooks," Family Relations 33 (1984): 559-66; Z. L. Bryant and M. Coleman, "The Black Family as Portrayed in Introductory Marriage and Family Textbooks," Family Relations 37 (1988): 255-9; M. Coleman, L. H. Ganong, and C. Goodwin, "The Presentation of Stepfamilies in Marriage and Family Textbooks: A Reexamination," Family Relations 43 (1994): 289-97; E. J. Hall and K. S. Stolley, "A Historical Analysis of the Presentation of Abortion and Adoption in Marriage and Family Textbooks: 1950-1987," Family Relations 46 (1997): 73-82.
31.
Peters, "The Black Family-Perpetuating the Myths," 350-54.
32.
Bryant and Coleman, "The Black Family," 257.
33.
Mann et al., "Paradigm Shifts," 327-30.
34.
Nolan, Coleman, and Ganong, " The Presentation of Stepfamilies," 560-64.
35.
Coleman, Ganong, and Goodwin, " The Presentation of Stepfamilies," 292.
36.
Klein and Smith, "Historical Trends," 221; Hall and Stolley, "A Historical Analysis," 75.
37.
Klein and Smith, "Historical Trends," 211; Mann et al., "Paradigm Shifts," 315; B. C. Miller and D. M. Klein, "A Survey of Recent Marriage and Family Texts." Contemporary Sociology, 1 (1981): 6-49.
38.
Miller and Klein, "A Survey," 8.
39.
Hall and Stolley, "A Historical Analysis," 75.
40.
The total number of books that fit our criteria for each decade was: four for 1950s, six for 1960s, nine for 1970s, seven for 1980s, and seven for 1990s. For additional information on sample selection, please contact the authors.
41.
The textbooks used during the pre-test were not part of our final sample because they did not meet the criterion of being first editions.
42.
Clifford Kirkpatrick , The Family as Process and Institution (New York: Ronald Press, 1955), 461.
43.
Randall Collins , Sociology of Marriage and the Family: Gender, Love, and Property (Chicago: Nelson-Hall , 1985), 269.
44.
Constance L. Shehan and Kenneth C. Kammeyer, Marriages and Families: Reflections of a Gendered Society (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1997), 193.
45.
Kirkpatrick, The Family as Process, 461.
46.
Maxine Baca Zinn and D. StanleyEitzen, Diversity in American Families (New York: Harper and Row, 1987), 283.
47.
Earl L. Koos , Marriage (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1953), 212.
48.
Collins, Sociology of Marriage, 269; emphasis in original.
49.
Koos, Marriage, 213.
50.
Kirkpatrick, The Family as Process, 461.
51.
Ibid.
52.
Robert F.Winch, The Modern Family (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1952), 202-03.
53.
Polit, " Stereotypes Relating to Family-Size Status," 108.
54.
Ruth S.Cavan, The American Family (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1953), 504.
55.
Koos, Marriage, 212.
56.
Ibid., 212.
57.
Ibid., 213.
58.
William M. Kephart , The Family, Society, and the Individual (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1961).
59.
Robert R. Bell , Marriage and Family Interaction ( Homewood, IL: Dorsey, 1963).
60.
Ibid., 326-7.
61.
Kephart, The Family, Society, and the Individual, 487.
62.
Ibid., 486-87.
63.
Richard J. Udry , The Social Context of Marriage ( Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1966 ).
64.
Gerald R.Leslie, The Family in Social Context (New York : Oxford, 1967).
65.
Udry, The Social Context of Marriage, 486.
66.
Ibid., 487.
67.
Bert N. Adams , The Family: A Sociological Interpretation (Chicago : Rand McNally, 1971).
68.
Arlene Skolnick, The Intimate Environment: Exploring Marriage and the Family ( Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1973 ).
69.
Ross J. Eshleman , The Family: An Introduction (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1974).
70.
Letha D. Scanzoni and John H. Scanzoni , Men, Women, and Change: A Sociology of Marriage and Family (New York: McGraw-Hill , 1976).
71.
Ibid., 399-400.
72.
Veevers, "The Moral Careers," 482; Park, "Stigma Management," 38.
73.
Baca Zinn and Eitzen, Diversity in American Families, 283.
74.
Mary Ann Lamanna and Agnes C. Riedmann , Marriages and Families: Making Choices throughout the Life Cycle (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth , 1981), 260.
75.
Baca Zinn and Eitzen, Diversity in American Families, 284.
76.
Lamanna and Riedman, Marriages and Families, 260.
77.
Collins, Sociology of Marriage , 269.
78.
David M.Newman, Sociology of Families (Thousand Oaks, CA : Pine Forge, 1999).
79.
Andrew J.Cherlin, Public and Private Families: An Introduction (New York : McGraw-Hill, 1996).
80.
Newman, Sociology of Families, 259.
81.
Nijole V. Benokraitis , Marriages and Families: Changes, Choices, and Constraints (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993), 284.
