Intended childlessness in late adolescence: Personality and psychopathology.

A series of studies are presented which examine the relation between parenthood intentions (intend to be a parent and intend to remain childless) and self-concept, mental health, and grade point average in a college student population. The results suggest that college students not intending to have a child tend to be statistically deviant on all the variables examined. Cross-validation results suggest a high frequency of psychopathology among the sample of young intended nonparent college students. Based on the MMPI results, the intention to be a nonparent appears to be associated with general maladjustment, rather than just a deviancy from social norms.