«Voluntary Childlessness» Family through the Eyes of a Family Psychologist

The paper analyzes the controversial socio-psychological phenomenon — the family system without children and, within it, the so-called 'voluntarily childless' families. This phenomenon is viewed through the prism of historical changes that have occurred in the former Soviet Union in the late twentieth century. The psychological characteristics of marital relations in these families and mechanisms of stability are discussed and compared with conventional nuclear families. The contradictory unity of the relationship between emotional closeness and separateness (differentiation) as well as the state of chaotic adaptation and reflexivity suggests that the experience that a childless couple gets in the process of the family establishment, psychologically is more complex than in families with children. Concern for the scientific status of a childless family in psychology — «the figure of silence» — is expressed. The question about the concept of the internal development of a family without children as a whole is raised. According to the author, the classical theory of family life cycle has lost its «universality» in the modern conditions and requires rethinking.

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