Ter mais um filho vs. parar no tamanho de família atual
Se você agir
Ter mais um filho
14%
Se você não agir
Parar no número atual de filhos
37%
Porcentagem de quem mais tarde se arrepende de cada escolha. As barras e o registro completo aparecem abaixo.
Família
Última revisão 2026-05-13
Qualidade das evidências 4.25/5
Pontuação de revisão em oito dimensões segundo a
grelha de qualidade
. Cada dimensão pontuada de 1 a 5.
D1 Verificação das fontes
4/5
D2 Autoridade e independência das fontes
4/5
D3 Precisão da taxa de arrependimento
3/5
D4 Comparabilidade das fontes
4/5
D5 Padrão de Gilovich
5/5
D6 Qualidade da prosa
5/5
D7 Completude das ressalvas
5/5
D8 Qualidade da amostra
4/5
Média4.25/5
Arrependimento por ação
Ter mais um filho
14%
~14% dos pais dizem que gostariam de ter tido menos filhos (arrependimento cumulativo quanto ao tamanho da família, não arrependimento por um filho adicional específico)
Pais em pesquisa qualitativa e transnacional
retrospectivo, sem prazo fixo
Arrependimento por omissão
Parar no número atual de filhos
37%
~37% dos adultos dos EUA gostariam de ter mais filhos do que têm atualmente (uma medida de aspiração que agrupa pais e pessoas que nunca tiveram filhos, não um instrumento direto de 'eu me arrependo de ter parado')
Adultos nos EUA (pais e não-pais combinados), nacionalmente representativo
retrospectivo, sem prazo fixo
% se arrependem desta escolha
Ter mais um filhoParar no número atual de filhos
14%37%
inaction dominates — A inacção domina — a maioria arrepende-se de não ter agido.
Decisões relacionadas
Decisões semanticamente semelhantes — mesmo terreno, compromissos diferentes.
The Institute for Family Studies surveyed 1,518 US adults in 2021 and found a persistent asymmetry in how people feel about their family size decisions. The single largest group — 37% of all adults, whether currently parents or not — wish they had more children than they currently have, while 14% of parents wish they had fewer. The two figures are not symmetric instruments: the 37% is a wish-for-more aspiration that bundles parents who want another child (~24% of adults) with never-parents who still hope to start (~13%), and the 14% is cumulative family-size regret across all parities rather than regret about one specific additional child. No US survey isolates regret about a single marginal child, so the action side uses the published 14% with that broader-construct caveat made explicit. The qualitative literature on parental regret (Donath 2015, Signs) establishes the phenomenon as real and studied but supplies no prevalence rate. The desire-for-more gap reported by IFS is structural: Americans’ stated ideal family size has risen to a 50-year high while actual birth rates have fallen, meaning the aspiration-actuality divergence is widening, not narrowing.
The Gilovich and Medvec inaction-dominance model predicts that long-run regrets accumulate more on the side of things left undone than things done. The fertility evidence fits this prediction. Parents who had one more child and feel stretched rarely express the kind of persistent, escalating regret that would exceed the regret of those who stopped and later wished they had not. The IFS data show that the “wish for fewer” group among parents (14%) is well under half the size of the “wish for more” group (37% of all adults; ~24% among current parents alone), consistent with inaction-dominance. Across the population, the wish-for-more group substantially outnumbers the wish-for-fewer group, a separate signal that under-reproduction is more commonly regretted than over-reproduction.
Several limitations qualify the comparison. The action-side 14% is the published IFS figure for parents who wish they had had fewer children, but it measures cumulative family-size regret across all parities, not regret about one specific additional child — no US survey isolates the marginal-child construct, so the rate is broader than the entry’s strict “one more?” framing. The inaction-side 37% is the published wish-for-more figure, but it bundles never-parents who never made a stopping decision, so it overstates retrospective regret about voluntarily stopping. A significant share of “stopping” decisions are involuntary — fertility decline, partner disagreement, financial constraints — meaning that many people counted in the inaction side did not face a clean choice to have another child and declined; conflating structural barriers with decisional inaction can inflate the inaction-regret estimate. The IFS sources are from a think tank with a stated pro-family orientation, though the underlying survey data (US Adult Sexual Behaviors and Attitudes Study) is publicly available. Both sides of this entry measure wish-for-more or wish-for-fewer as a current preference, not a retrospective decision-regret with a validated instrument; the gap is directionally robust but should not be read as a precisely calibrated effect size.
Fontes: acção
Registro de evidências
Cada número abaixo é o que cada fonte relatou, com a citação literal em que nos baseamos e como chegamos ao nosso valor. Clique em qualquer link para verificar diretamente.
1/2 fontes verificadas de forma independente palavra por palavra em relação à fonte citada
[1]Institute for Family Studies / Lyman Stone — To Have Kids or Not: Which Decision Do Americans Regret More?
Verificado
↗ 1 other entry
Fonte de referência
14% of people with children agreed 'I wish I had had fewer children' (equal to 10% of all adults); this is cumulative family-size regret across all parities, not regret about one specific additional child
Trecho
“"Just 14% of people with children (10% of all adults) agreed with the statement [that they wish they had had fewer children]."
”
Dados da fonte de
2021-12-08
Acessado
2026-06-30
Verificação
Trecho obtido novamente de forma independente e confirmado palavra por palavra em relação à fonte citada durante nossa auditoria de fundamentação.
Cálculo
Institute for Family Studies analysis of the US Adult Sexual Behaviors and Attitudes Study (wave 2, March 2021, n=1,518 US adults, nationally representative). The action-side regret rate for this entry (0.14) is the directly published figure: 14% of people with children agreed "I wish I had had fewer children." This is the broadest available measure of parental child-regret in the US, and the regret_display labels it honestly as cumulative family-size regret — it captures parents who wish any child had not been born, spanning parents at all parities, and is NOT restricted to regret about a marginal one-more addition. No published US survey isolates regret about having one additional child beyond the current family size, so the entry uses the published 14% with a matching construct label rather than fabricating a smaller marginal-child number. (A prior version of this entry used an unpublished 8% downward adjustment fused with a qualitative paper to fit the "one more?" framing; that adjustment was not in any source and has been removed.) D3 score: 3 (real nationally representative survey, directly published figure; construct is family-size regret, broader than the entry's strict marginal-child framing — labeled as such).
[2]Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society — Regretting Motherhood: A Sociopolitical Analysis
Revisado por pares
Qualitative analysis establishing parental regret as a legitimate, studied societal experience; the paper supplies no prevalence rate
Trecho
“[Paraphrase from published abstract — full text paywalled. Donath (2015) argues that regretting motherhood is a legitimate societal experience that challenges the assumption all mothers love motherhood. The paper draws on qualitative interviews with Israeli mothers who regret having children and situates regret within feminist and sociological theory. The paper does not report a single national prevalence figure but provides a conceptual framework used in subsequent quantitative work.]
”
Dados da fonte de
2015-01-01
Acessado
2026-05-13
Cálculo
Donath, O. (2015). Regretting Motherhood: A Sociopolitical Analysis. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 40(2), 343-367. https://doi.org/10.1086/678145. This is a landmark qualitative-feminist paper that opened systematic inquiry into parental regret; it supplies no prevalence rate. Included as peer-reviewed methodological support for the action side, confirming that parental regret is a real, studied phenomenon. The quantitative rate (0.14) comes entirely from the IFS/Stone survey analysis above; Donath is not used to derive any number.
Fontes: inacção
Registro de evidências
Cada número abaixo é o que cada fonte relatou, com a citação literal em que nos baseamos e como chegamos ao nosso valor. Clique em qualquer link para verificar diretamente.
2/2 fontes verificadas de forma independente palavra por palavra em relação à fonte citada
[1]Institute for Family Studies / Lyman Stone — To Have Kids or Not: Which Decision Do Americans Regret More?
Verificado
↗ 1 other entry
Fonte de referência
37% of US adults — the single largest group — wish they had more children than they currently have, whether currently parents or not; 24% already have children but still want more and 13% have no children but still hope to
Trecho
“"A third (34%) have children and are happy with the number they have and another third—the largest group—wish they had more (37%), whether currently parents or not."
”
Dados da fonte de
2021-12-08
Acessado
2026-06-30
Verificação
Trecho obtido novamente de forma independente e confirmado palavra por palavra em relação à fonte citada durante nossa auditoria de fundamentação.
Cálculo
Institute for Family Studies analysis of the US Adult Sexual Behaviors and Attitudes Study (wave 2, March 2021, n=1,518 US adults, nationally representative). The verbatim excerpt identifies the satisfied group as 34% and the wish-for-more group as 37% ("whether currently parents or not"). The inaction-side rate for this entry is the directly published 0.37 wish-for-more figure, NOT the 0.34 that labels the satisfied-with-current-count group (a prior version of this entry mistakenly borrowed the 34% number, an inversion that has been corrected). The 37% is composed of ~24% who already have children and still want more and ~13% who have no children but still hope to — so it bundles parents and never-parents. The regret_display labels this honestly as an aspiration measure that is NOT a retrospective "I regret stopping" instrument: it captures a current wish-for-more preference, and a substantial share of the group (the ~13% never-parents) never made any stopping decision at all. D3 score: 3 (real nationally representative survey, directly published figure; construct is wish-for-more aspiration, broader than and not identical to regret about voluntarily stopping — labeled as such).
[2]Institute for Family Studies — Americans' Desire for Large Families Hits 50-Year High
Verificado
↗ 1 other entry
Fonte de referência
45% of Americans now see three or more children as the ideal family size — the highest share since the late 1960s — up from 38% in 2013, widening the gap between desired and actual fertility
Trecho
“"Today, 45% of Americans see three or more children as ideal, a steep increase from 38% in 2013 and from 33% in 2003. Not since the sweeping social changes of the late 1960s have more Americans considered a larger family of three or more children ideal."
”
Dados da fonte de
2023-06-28
Acessado
2026-06-30
Verificação
Trecho obtido novamente de forma independente e confirmado palavra por palavra em relação à fonte citada durante nossa auditoria de fundamentação.
Cálculo
IFS analysis of Gallup Social Series data on ideal family size. Confirms that the aspiration-actuality gap is widening over time, supporting the wish-for-more direction as durable rather than a one-survey artifact. Included as corroborating trend evidence; the primary inaction-side rate (0.37) is drawn from the Stone (2021) SABES survey above.
Ressalvas
This entry is distinct from the existing family-size entry, which frames the question as "wishing for fewer vs more across all family sizes." This entry focuses specifically on the marginal decision of stopping vs having one additional child. The two entries share some source data but ask different questions; users facing a specific "one more?" decision are the intended audience here. The action-side 0.14 rate is the directly published IFS figure: 14% of parents wish they had had fewer children. That figure spans parents at all parities and captures cumulative family-size regret rather than regret specifically about one marginal addition — no US survey isolates marginal-child regret, so the published 14% is used with a matching construct label rather than an unpublished downward adjustment. The inaction-side 0.37 is the directly published IFS wish-for-more figure; it bundles parents who want more children (~24% of adults) and never-parents who still hope to have children (~13%), so it is an aspiration measure, not a direct "I regret stopping" instrument — and a substantial slice of it (the never-parents) never made any stopping decision. A meaningful fraction of stopping decisions are involuntary (fertility limitations, partner disagreement, financial constraints, health), which complicates the action/inaction framing — people who wanted more but could not have more are not making a voluntary inaction in the same sense as people who chose to stop. The Donath (2015) paper is full-text paywalled and its central claim is qualitative-feminist rather than quantitative-epidemiological; it is included to establish the peer- reviewed basis for the action-side construct. Both IFS sources are from a think tank with a stated pro-family orientation, which may influence framing and emphasis; the underlying data (GSS, SABES) are publicly available and independently reproducible.
