Warm Up
Do you have any kids?
What do you like to do in your free time?
Are you optomistic or pessimistic about the future?
Reading
It seems views on having children are changing in the USA. New research shows that 25% of adults do not want to have children. A study from Michigan State University (MSU) reveals that a quarter of American adults are happy to be "child-free". It says these people do not want children and are happier without them.
MSU psychologists Jennifer Watling Neal and Zachary Neal did research on why people who do not want children might be different. They wanted to find out what the differences were between these child-free people and "non-parents". They said non-parents include "not-yet-parents" (those planning to have kids) and people who cannot have kids due to medical problems.
The researchers looked at data from 1,000 adults who took part in an MSU survey. Ms Neal said: "We were most surprised by how many child-free people there are. We found that more than one in four people...identified as child-free, which is much higher than...in previous studies." She said child-free people were more liberal than those with children, who were more conservative.
She found that unsurprisingly, parents were more likely to be in a relationship. Around half of the child-free adults were single. Ms Neal also said child-free adults were a little younger and less well-educated than parents or non-parents. She added that more research is needed to find out why people make the decision to be child-free.
Reading Comprehension
Where are the people from in the study?
Why did the researchers say some people could not have children?
Who did the researchers find were more liberal?
Discussion Questions
What do you think of children?
Why might views on having children be changing?
Do you worry this is not a good world to bring children up in?
How many children is it best to have?
What are the challenges of having children?
What are the joys of having children?
Is it better to have children?
What advice do you have for today's parents?
Is it easier or more difficult to be a parent nowadays?
Is it a good thing that more people are not having children?
