Psychology Department, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2024 Apr 16;19(4):e0302184. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0302184. eCollection 2024.
Childfree adults neither have nor want children, but estimates of their prevalence vary widely, leading to ambiguity about how common this family status actually is. The goal of this study is to examine the effects of sample composition, time, and question wording on estimates of the prevalence of childfree adults. We pool 83 nationally representative estimates of the prevalence of childfree adults in Japan since 2000 using meta-regression to identify the influence of sex, marital status, year, and survey question. Prevalence estimates are higher when computed from samples of women than men, from samples of singles than married people, from samples collected more recently, and from surveys asking questions about expectations than wants. Most of the variation in estimates of the prevalence of childfree adults can be attributed to differences in sample composition, time, and question wording. Taking these factors into account, we estimate that over 2.5 million Japanese adults age 18-50, or 5.64% of this population, were childfree in 2020.
无子女成年人既没有孩子也不想要孩子，但对其流行程度的估计差异很大，这导致这种家庭状况的实际普遍性存在模糊性。本研究的目的是检验样本组成、时间和问题措辞对无子女成年人流行程度估计的影响。我们使用元回归分析，汇总了自 2000 年以来日本无子女成年人流行程度的 83 项具有全国代表性的估计，以确定性别、婚姻状况、年份和调查问题的影响。从女性样本中计算的流行程度估计值高于男性样本，从单身样本中计算的流行程度估计值高于已婚样本，从最近收集的样本中计算的流行程度估计值更高，从询问期望的调查中计算的流行程度估计值高于询问意愿的调查。无子女成年人流行程度估计值的大部分差异可归因于样本组成、时间和问题措辞的差异。考虑到这些因素，我们估计在 2020 年，有超过 250 万 18-50 岁的日本成年人是无子女的，占该年龄段人口的 5.64%。
