#demographicresearch — Public Fediverse posts
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DATE: September 9, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Scientists thought “intensive parenting” was driving down birth rates. They found the exact opposite.
New research suggests that adopting highly demanding, child-centered parenting attitudes is associated with a stronger desire to have children. Rather than deterring people from starting or expanding families, subscribing to these ideals appears to go hand in hand with wanting to become a parent. The findings were published in the Journal of Marriage and Family.
Over the past few decades, a cultural shift has transformed how many people approach raising kids. This approach, known as intensive parenting, is a style where childrearing is viewed as an emotionally absorbing, labor-intensive, and financially demanding project. Parents are expected to place their children’s needs above their own and constantly provide stimulating activities to boost their social and cognitive development.
At the same time, birth rates have been steadily declining in many high-income nations. In Sweden, the total fertility rate dropped to an all-time low of 1.45 children per woman in 2023. Similar trends are visible across the Nordic region. For instance, a 2021 study of Finnish adults indicated that younger generations are increasingly preferring to remain childless.
“We have known for some years now that we are witnessing an unprecedented and unexplained decline in fertility,” study author Sunnee Billingsley, a professor of sociology at Stockholm University, told PsyPost. “Fewer people are entering parenthood and/or they are having fewer children overall. This is even the case in Sweden, where family policies have long been believed to hold fertility levels stable and at a high level in relation to other wealthy countries.”
Because traditional economic models suggest that rising costs reduce demand, some scholars have speculated that the heavy time and financial burdens of modern parenting are driving this fertility decline. The assumption is that people are either opting out of parenthood entirely or stopping at fewer children because they feel they cannot meet these high standards.
“When I thought about what has changed since 2010, when the fertility decline began, the shift in parenting culture caught my attention,” Billingsley said. “It seemed to me that the increased time, energy, financial, and emotional investment in children could lead to fertility decline.”
The research, led by Billingsley, aimed to test whether this assumption holds true using specific survey data. Measuring these beliefs can be complicated. For example, a 2022 study in the United States found that parents do not always adopt every aspect of the intensive parenting ideal, but rather combine different expectations in unique ways. The research team wanted to see how these varied, multidimensional attitudes directly related to individuals’ childbearing plans in a country known for strong social support.
To explore this, the researchers analyzed data from the 2021 Swedish Generations and Gender Survey. Their sample included 3,397 Swedish men and women. The women were aged 18 to 40, and the men were aged 18 to 45. The researchers excluded individuals who were currently pregnant or who reported that they were physically unable to have children.
Participants answered questions about their short-term and long-term childbearing plans. They indicated whether they intended to stay childfree, postpone parenthood, or stop having children if they were already parents. The survey also included six questions measuring intensive parenting attitudes. Participants rated their agreement with statements such as “children’s needs should come before their parents'” and “child rearing is the most demanding job in the world.”
Using a statistical technique, the researchers grouped participants into five categories based on their overall attitude profiles. These groups ranged from those who strongly endorsed intensive parenting to those who actively rejected it. The researchers then mapped these profiles against the participants’ fertility intentions.
In the study sample, 24.6 percent of childless respondents intended to remain childfree. The researchers originally expected that strong intensive parenting attitudes would increase this likelihood. Instead, the results pointed in the opposite direction.
People who held strong or moderate intensive parenting attitudes were actually between 20 and 26 absolute percentage points less likely to want to stay childfree compared to those who rejected intensive parenting ideas. Even respondents who held mixed or neutral views were less likely to want to remain childfree than the reject group.
A similar pattern emerged for parents deciding whether to expand their families. Among respondents who already had two or more children, 86.8 percent intended to stop having kids. However, those with strong intensive parenting attitudes were 14 percentage points less likely to intend to stop than the group that rejected these attitudes. This indicates that people with demanding parenting ideals were more open to having a third or higher-order child.
The researchers found no consistent link between these attitudes and the intention to simply delay having children. Childless women did not show statistically different intentions to postpone parenthood based on their attitude profiles. There was a slight indication that some men with strong attitudes were less likely to want to postpone, but the overall pattern did not clearly support the idea that intensive parenting drives people to put off starting a family.
Overall, the findings suggest that intensive parenting attitudes and the desire for children act as a package deal. Rather than scaring people away, embracing the heavy demands of modern parenting aligns with a commitment to family building. The authors note that this might reflect anticipatory socialization, a process where people who already want children naturally start absorbing the dominant parenting culture around them.
“We cannot assume that the widespread decline is due to people being resistant to parenting demands in today’s intensive parenting culture,” Billingsley explained.
“Intensive parenting norms are widespread and have made parenting more challenging,” she said. “It is very surprising that it does not seem to lead to resistance to enter parenthood. The way it seems to work is that people who are thinking about having a child also seem to be getting on board with what that requires nowadays. We call this the package deal. Those who reject the norms are also those who are seem to reject the idea of having children.”
Another explanation is that children provide a pathway for individuals to gain social esteem. If raising a successful child is viewed as a personal achievement and a reflection of good morals, people who highly value this intensive approach may be more motivated to have children to fulfill that social role.
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. The study relies on cross-sectional data, meaning the survey captured a single snapshot in time. This prevents the researchers from determining a strict sequence of events or verifying that attitudes directly cause specific family plans.
The survey also had a relatively low response rate. Although the researchers applied statistical weights to adjust for underrepresented groups, the findings might not perfectly capture the views of the entire population. Additionally, the questionnaire only included six items to measure intensive parenting, leaving out other dimensions of the ideology.
The Swedish context itself is another factor to consider, as the country offers robust institutional support for parents, including subsidized childcare and generous paid parental leave for both mothers and fathers. “Sweden is a unique case because of the relatively strong support families receive in the form of well-paid parental leave to fully cover infant care, job security, and a family-friendly social and work environment,” Billingsley noted.
“In addition, women have more support from their partners in the day-to-day business of childrearing compared to other non-Nordic contexts,” she added. “This means that men and women in Sweden may be uniquely able to adhere to intensive parenting norms and have a child than in other parts of the world. Whether the surprising relationship we uncovered in Sweden is generalizable is unknown. There is little research documenting patterns such as this elsewhere.”
Because these policies might buffer the potential negative impacts of intensive parenting, the relationship between these attitudes and fertility might look different in countries with weaker social safety nets. Future research will aim to address these gaps by expanding the scope of the data.
“The focus so far has been on childbearing plans in Sweden and we now have the data to look at whether these plans were realized and actual childbirth,” Billingsley said. “There is also new data allowing us to explore the intensive parenting and fertility intentions relationship across a range of countries in Europe, which will allow us to know whether the relationship is robust across different contexts.”
The study, “Are Intensive Parenting Attitudes a Deterrent to Childbearing?,” was authored by Sunnee Billingsley, Stefanie Mollborn, and Gerda Neyer.
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