Development of Attitudes Toward Voluntary Childlessness Scale and Its Associations With Ambivalent Sexism in Turkey

Abstract

We aimed to develop a scale about attitudes toward voluntary childlessness and explore the predictive powers of hostile/benevolent sexism, and demographic factors (age, gender, education, income, and already having a child) on the scale. Three factors ( N = 322; Mage = 32.47, SDage = 9.33) emerged: negative biases against childfree people (α = .92); necessity of children in being a family, having a happy/meaningful life (α = .94); and supporting individuals’ choice to be childless (α = .80). The scale was found to be reliable and valid. People with higher hostile/benevolent sexism had more negative bias against childfree people, perceived children as necessary to form a family and provided less support for the childlessness choice. Higher education predicted more positive attitudes toward childlessness. People already having a child perceived children necessary to be a family. Younger people tended to support childlessness choice. Gender and income did not predict the factors.