Childless Men Are More Depressed and Sad Than Childless Women

The phrase “childless man” is about as common as “working father.” In our culture there’s an implicit priority of motherhood for all women, while men are simply thought of as men and not “potential parents.” Interestingly, though, a new study finds that men are much more emotionally distraught by not having children than women are.

The research—presented at the British Sociological Association in London on Wednesday—was based on a survey conducted on men and women who are not parents. Of the men and women in that group who wanted to have children, 50% of the men had “experienced isolation” from being childless as opposed to just 27% of women. In fact, across the board the men were more negatively affected than the women, experiencing depression, anger, sadness and jealousy more frequently because they did not have kids.

However, none of the men surveyed said they experienced guilt for not having children, while 16% of the women said they did. So even though women seem to be relatively happy not being mothers, they still feel like they did something wrong.

Men ‘More Depressed and Sad’ Than Women If Childless, Says Study [Science Daily]