Motivation for Parenthood and Concern for the Next Generation in Younger and Middle Aged Parents

Abstract

The study was conducted with the first aim to examine the relation of the four categories of motivation for parenthood, toward Rabin (Rabin, 1965), with generative concern or the concern for the welfare of the next generation. Parenthood is the most common, although not the only way of expressing generativity, for which it was assumed to be one of the sources of motivation for parenthood. The other aim was to test gender and age differences in motivation for parenthood. 225 parents, 20 to 60 years old, participated in the study. Their reasons for heaving child/children were assessed using the Motivation for Parenthood Scale, while generative concern was measured by the adapted Loyola Generativity Scale. The results have shown that generative concern correlates significantly, but lowly, with altruistic and instrumental motivation for parenthood, while correlations of generative concern with fatalistic and narcissistic motives were not significant. Women have higher altruistic motivation than men, while men had higher instrumental motivation than women. While controlling for number of children, younger and middle aged parents did not differ significantly in their assessment of the categories of motivation for parenthood. However, in interaction with gender, subjects' age had significant effect on altruistic and instrumental motivation.