Journal Article

The Incompatibility of Materialism and the Desire for Children: Psychological Insights into the Fertility Discrepancy Among Modern Countries

Scollon, Christie N., Tov, William, Patel, Lily, Balliet, Daniel, Li, Norman P.

2011

Overview

We examined factors related to attitudes toward marriage and the importance of having children in both the US and Singapore. Path analysis indicated that life dissatisfaction leads to materialism, and both of these factors lead to favorable attitudes toward marriage, which leads to greater desire for children. Further analysis indicated this model was effective in explaining the difference in desire for children between Singaporeans and Americans, whereby Singaporeans have lower life satisfaction, higher materialism, and lower attitudes toward marriage and children. Materialistic standards of success were also related to the emphasis women placed on potential marriage partners' earning capacity. As Singaporean women had higher materialistic standards, they also placed higher emphasis on potential mates' earning capacity. Results suggest a consideration of psychological variables such as life satisfaction, materialism, and mate preferences may lead to a better understanding of larger-scale socioeconomic issues, including low fertility rates among developed East Asian countries.

• Publisher: Springer,Springer Netherlands,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Academic Achievement / Americans / Asia / Asians / Attitudes / Birth Rate / Child psychology / Children / Children & youth / Comparative Analysis / Correlation / Cross Cultural Studies / Cultural Differences / Desire / Developed Nations / Discontent / East Asia / Economic Factors / Education Work Relationship / Employment Patterns / Families & family life / Family (Sociological Unit) / Females / Fertility / Fertility rates / Foreign Countries / GDP / Globalization / Gross Domestic Product / Happiness / Human Capital / Human Geography / Interpersonal Relationship / Life Satisfaction / Marriage / Mate selection / Materialism / Men / Microeconomics / Modernity / Opportunity costs / Path Analysis / Personal relationships / Personality psychology / Predictor Variables / Psychological aspects / Psychological Factors / Psychological Patterns / Public Health / Quality of Life Research / Rejection (Psychology) / Satisfaction / Sex Fairness / Sexual reproduction / Sexuality. Marriage. Family relations / Singapore / Social Indicators / Social psychology / Social Sciences / Sociocultural Patterns / Socioeconomic Influences / Socioeconomic status / Sociology / Sociology of the family. Age groups / Sociometric Techniques / Spouses / Trends / U.S.A / United States / Women / Work experience