I should not have had a child: Development and validation of the Parenthood Regret Scale

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cris.lastimport.scopus2025-04-03T03:10:30Z
dc.abstract.enParenthood is one of the most important social roles, but the consequences of becoming a parent are not always as expected. It is estimated that in developed countries, up to 5%–14% of parents regret their decision to have children and if they could turn back time, they would choose childlessness. While such a situation can have serious consequences for the entire family system, our knowledge of the causes and consequences of regretting parenthood is very limited. Beyond the possible taboo, one factor that is certainly responsible for the small number of studies on regretting parenthood is the lack of questionnaires to measure its severity. In the present study, we decided to fill this gap and developed a new questionnaire—the Parenthood Regret Scale. In a series of three studies (total N = 2,994) conducted on English-speaking, French-speaking, and Polish-speaking samples, we analyzed the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the new scale. The results confirmed that the Parenthood Regret Scale has a single-factor structure, which has been replicated in the three languages. Furthermore, the analyses confirmed that higher parenthood regret is negatively related to life satisfaction, and positively related to the severity of depressive symptoms and parental burnout. In light of the results obtained, it can be concluded that the Parenthood Regret Scale is a valid and reliable measure that can help advance research on an almost unknown issue of great social importance.
dc.affiliationInstitute of Psychology
dc.affiliationWydział Psychologii i Prawa w Poznaniu
dc.contributor.authorPiotrowski, Konrad
dc.contributor.authorMikolajczak, Moïra
dc.contributor.authorRoskam, Isabelle
dc.date.access2023-12-19
dc.date.accessioned2023-12-19T08:44:18Z
dc.date.available2023-12-19T08:44:18Z
dc.date.created2023-09-06
dc.date.issued2023-12-01
dc.description.accesstimeafter_publication
dc.description.issue8
dc.description.physical1282-1293
dc.description.versionfinal_author
dc.description.volume37
dc.identifier.doi10.1037/fam0001158
dc.identifier.issn1939-1293
dc.identifier.issn0893-3200
dc.identifier.urihttps://share.swps.edu.pl/handle/swps/232
dc.identifier.weblinkhttps://psycnet.apa.org/record/2024-14859-001?doi=1
dc.languageen
dc.pbn.affiliationpsychologia
dc.rightsOther
dc.rights.questionYes_rights
dc.share.articleOPEN_REPOSITORY
dc.swps.sciencecloudsend
dc.titleI should not have had a child: Development and validation of the Parenthood Regret Scale
dc.title.journalJournal of Family Psychology
dc.typeJournalArticle
dspace.entity.typeArticle