The fundamental reasons and motives for voluntary childlessness in the modern society

The research deals with the problem of voluntary childlessness in the contemporary Russian society. The paper considers the macro-reasons for the appearance and promotion of the phenomenon under review from the perspective of various international theoretical concepts and approaches. In addition, the author presents the findings of the Internet survey designed to study the motives for the voluntary choice to not have children in a child-free community that are classified into three key groups. They include childhood psychological trauma, hedonistic attitudes and worldview. While identifying the nature of childlessness, the author concludes that this phenomenon reflects the social and economic transformations and is determined by the new standards of the post-industrial society, the liberalization of higher education, the emancipation of women and gender equality and the growth of individualistic values. The paper reveals that to predict the durability of the child-free phenomenon, further theoretical and empirical research is required.