THE WISH FOR A CHILD IN COUPLES EAGER, DISINTERESTED, AND CONFLICTED ABOUT HAVING CHILDREN.

Three groups of young adult couples without children were studied. They were assessed to be highly motivated to have children, moderately motivated to have children, and disinterested in having children. The groups did not differ in degree of measured feminist sympathies nor in their memories of their own parents' degree of nurturance, demandingness, or attention. An extreme group analysis of those couples particularly motivated and unmotivated revealed differences in levels of narcissism. There were no intraccu pie significant correlations for these variables with the exception of a significant correlation for feminism between partners in highly and moderately motivated couples. There were some intercou pie significant differences in the value ascribed to having children, notably that low motivation women were concerned about their ability to parent and low motivation men were worried about their emotional immaturity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of American Journal of Family Therapy is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)