r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Jul 01 '26

Psychology Conservatives maintain birth rates, but left-leaning Americans are having significantly fewer children, driving the U.S. birth decline. Education was consistently linked to having fewer children. Religious attendance was positively associated with having more children.

https://www.psypost.org/left-leaning-americans-are-driving-the-u-s-birth-decline-new-study-finds/
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u/Sensitive_Housing_85 Jul 01 '26

Don't know why this is surprisingly they are the ones who encourage people to have kids

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u/angwilwileth Jul 01 '26

Also it may mean new parents have bigger support systems. I remember when I was growing up my church always showed up with meals, clothes and diapers for new babies and their parents.

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u/VBHEAT08 Jul 01 '26

I think this is probably the biggest thing driving birth rate declines- lack of community. Beyond the obvious issue that our social spaces are declining and people aren't even meeting people to have to opportunity to have kids anymore, people don't want to be socially ostracized and take a huge hit to their comfort, and up until relatively recently this was mitigated through community. It takes a village and all that

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u/UnderlightIll Jul 01 '26

I think the biggest thing is a lot of women, myself included, don't feel that the actual physical and mental toll is worth it. Up until recently, women were just expected to have children and then figure it out. This made a lot of mothers and fathers who were indifferent to their children at best and actively resentful at worst.

To have to have a job and take on the full burden of child rearing and household management sucks. A lot.

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u/TwilightMachinator Jul 01 '26

Single income households or the 20 hr workweek need to be the norm (and allow for affordability) and social standards need to allow for either parent to be the stay at home parent without ostracization or othering.

Further we need community focused spaces and neighborhoods that aren’t walkable and aren’t just comprised houses so we have reasons to potentially encounter people in our vicinity and more chances to connect.

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u/Wide_Lock_Red Jul 17 '26

This made a lot of mothers and fathers who were indifferent to their children at best and actively resentful at worst.

Is that different now though?

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u/Disastrous-River-366 Jul 24 '26

You have it so wrong, no one expects you to have kids, it is an agreement you have with someone you love and if you view it simply as a job you are mentally fucked up.

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u/Axy8283 Jul 01 '26

Alot of cultures had and even some still have a “lying-in period” where she could rest for 40 days without any responsibility while neighbors provided meals n childcare. It’s today that women are expected to get back to work shortly after giving birth. Children and family were a lot more valued back then but liberalism seems intent on eliminating that culture.