The impact of wish for children and having children on attainment and importance of life values

A total of 190 married Swedish couples were asked to make attainment and importance ratings of 90 life values. The selection of values was guided by their relevance for the family domain. Qeustions were also given about sociodemographic background factors and about the strength of wish for having a child in the next three years. A principal component analysis indicated that life values were structured in terms of the factors Love/Security, Personal development, Altruisitic values, Material standard, Maturity, Caring values, Freedom and Selfcentered values. LISREL analyses yielded a good fit of the following causal model: Family size and duration of marriage affect negatively the wish for having a child, which in turn exert a positive influence on the attainment: of a large variety of values (particularly for males), which in turn influence positively the importance of the same values. This model suggests a ''Catch 22'' of marriage: The wish for a child fuels marital happiness, but the implementation of this wish reduces the happiness.