Faculty of Psychology and Law, Institute of Psychology, SWPS University.
Department of Psychology, University of Louvain.
J Fam Psychol. 2023 Dec;37(8):1282-1293. doi: 10.1037/fam0001158. Epub 2023 Oct 5.
Parenthood is one of the most important social roles, but the consequences of becoming a parent are not always as expected. It is estimated that in developed countries, up to 5%-14% of parents regret their decision to have children and if they could turn back time, they would choose childlessness. While such a situation can have serious consequences for the entire family system, our knowledge of the causes and consequences of regretting parenthood is very limited. Beyond the possible taboo, one factor that is certainly responsible for the small number of studies on regretting parenthood is the lack of questionnaires to measure its severity. In the present study, we decided to fill this gap and developed a new questionnaire-the Parenthood Regret Scale. In a series of three studies (total = 2,994) conducted on English-speaking, French-speaking, and Polish-speaking samples, we analyzed the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the new scale. The results confirmed that the Parenthood Regret Scale has a single-factor structure, which has been replicated in the three languages. Furthermore, the analyses confirmed that higher parenthood regret is negatively related to life satisfaction, and positively related to the severity of depressive symptoms and parental burnout. In light of the results obtained, it can be concluded that the Parenthood Regret Scale is a valid and reliable measure that can help advance research on an almost unknown issue of great social importance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
为人父母是最重要的社会角色之一，但成为父母的后果并不总是如预期的那样。据估计，在发达国家，多达 5%-14%的父母后悔生育孩子，如果可以时光倒流，他们会选择不生育。虽然这种情况可能对整个家庭系统产生严重后果，但我们对为人父母后感到后悔的原因和后果的了解非常有限。除了可能存在的禁忌之外，导致对为人父母后感到后悔的研究数量较少的一个因素肯定是缺乏衡量其严重程度的问卷。在本研究中，我们决定填补这一空白，并开发了一种新的问卷——为人父母后后悔量表。在对英语、法语和波兰语样本进行的三项研究（共 2994 人）中，我们分析了新量表的结构、信度和效度。结果证实，为人父母后后悔量表具有单因素结构，在三种语言中得到了复制。此外，分析还证实，为人父母后后悔程度越高，生活满意度越低，与抑郁症状和父母倦怠的严重程度呈正相关。鉴于所获得的结果，可以得出结论，为人父母后后悔量表是一种有效且可靠的测量工具，可以帮助推进对这一几乎未知但具有重要社会意义的问题的研究。
