Why I Hate the Parents vs. Childfree Online Feuds

Dr. Francesca Luberti gives an overview of the online feuds between parents and childfree people, and explains how we can have more productive discussions.

8/4/20251 min read

An overview of the online feuds between parents and childfree people and why they are unproductive, as well as a review of social science research that explains why parents and childfree are so different and a discussion of what we can do to have more nuanced conversations about choosing to be a parent vs. childfree.

Sources cited in the video
Video clips and pictures

The thumbnail and video include screenshots and clips of posts by several parent and childfree content creators. All pictures and video clips belong to their respective owners and are only used here for educational purposes.

The video also contains short clips from the Jubilee Parents vs Childfree Middle Ground YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF1yNF_IMB0&t=1060s

News articles and blog posts

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/23/style/celebrity-pregnancy-social-media.html

https://laurieswanderingmind.medium.com/the-pregnant-influencer-is-good-for-business-the-capitalization-of-pregnancy-on-social-media-5878ec5e2e21

https://www.vogue.com/article/celebrity-pregnancy-reveal

https://graziamagazine.com/us/articles/2020-pregnancies-baby-bump/

https://globalnews.ca/news/10681509/trad-wife-trend-social-media-explainer/

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/10/1/tradwife-ballerina-farm-womanhood/

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/13/dual-income-no-kids-free-time-dinks-social-media

https://www.today.com/money/money/dinks-tiktok-trend-rcna148408

Peer-reviewed scientific papers

Kerry & Murray, 2018, published in Personality and Individual Differences https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.05.045

Kerry & Murray, 2020, published in Social Psychological and Personality Science https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550619853598

Kerry et al., 2021, published in Evolutionary Human Sciences https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2021.29

Kerry et al., 2022, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0978

Blake et al., 2023, published in Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology https://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-022-00207-6