Reference Group Support for Voluntary Childlessness: Evidence for Conformity

The purpose of this study was to test four hypotheses in an attempt to demonstrate that reference group support is an influential factor in deciding not to have children. The results show that the majority of women who wished to remain childless had reference group support for that decision although they characteristically had fewer reference groups than those females who looked forward to having children. The data further demonstrate that even though the desire no women like the desire women were aware of the negative pressures and sanctions that accompany noncompliance to the dominant social norm prescribing children the former exhibited significantly less overall concern. (authors)