Research project An international comparative study on the Challenges, Consequences, and Contexts of Childlessness
As populations age and birth rates decline, more people are growing old without children, posing challenges for both individuals and social care systems. This project investigates the Challenges, Consequences, and Contexts of Childlessness, generating new knowledge and policy recommendations to enhance social protection for childless aging populations in Sweden, Europe, and Asia.
Population aging and evolving fertility preferences are giving rise to a new demographic: individuals aging without children. This emerging cohort poses significant challenges for both the childless population and social care systems worldwide, as current policies are predicated on the assumption of support from children in later life. In 2023, the United Nations called on countries to reassess their longstanding social protection policies and to develop sustainable, adequate, and affordable schemes that address the diverse needs and heterogeneity of aging population. This call to action underscores the urgent need to reevaluate social protection frameworks, particularly in light of ongoing trends towards the privatization and informalization of elderly care, and the growing demographic of individuals aging without children.
The purpose of 4C/Foresee is to investigate the Challenges, Consequences, and Contexts of Childlessness, with the aim of generating new empirical knowledge about childless aging and providing evidence-based policy recommendations that address the social protection needs of childless older adults. Additionally, the project seeks to foreseeingly build stakeholder capacity for effectively designing and implementing social protection interventions for future childless aging cohorts in Sweden, as well as in selected European and Asian case countries.
Our specific aims are to:
· Explore the lived experiences of aging without children in Sweden and childless older adults navigate everyday challenges through informal social networks (Study 1).
· Examine the health and social consequences of childlessness, and whether and how social network characteristics moderate this relationship, taking into account intersectional factors and variations across European welfare systems (Study 2).
· Evaluate the policy contexts in which childless older adults age and the effectiveness of existing social protection programs and policies in Sweden, Europe, and Asia in addressing the health, social, and economic needs of older adults without children (Study 3).
4C /Foresee employs an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods approach with cross-country comparisons, incorporating a qualitative study with in-depth interviews and social network mapping in Sweden, a quantitative analysis of panel data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), and a policy analysis covering Sweden, Germany, Spain, Indonesia, India, and South Korea. Selected countries are at different stages of fertility transition, with rates below the global replacement level of 2.3, and represent diverse welfare regimes, providing a comparative framework for understanding childless aging.
