How do children influence our choices in life?

In the western part of the world, fewer and fewer children are born. This is also the case in Denmark, where fertility in 2025 reached 1.5 children per woman.

The fewer children and smaller families have an impact both on the individual and on society as a whole. We just don't know all the consequences in detail, because how do we actually react when we have children? What choices do we make, depending on whether we have children or not? A research project will now try to uncover this.

»How likely are people to invest in the future or in the present when they have children? How do they think and act?,« explains Astrid Würtz Rasmussen, Professor of Economics at Aarhus University, who is heading the project.

Among other things, the researchers will be targeting people who have undergone fertility treatment because this group has made a conscious choice to have children. However, not everyone has been successful with the treatment, and this is precisely the key to being able to measure the consequences of having children.

Today, more than one in ten children born in Denmark are conceived through fertility treatment.

Hoping to get answers to the big questions

In the research project, parents who have undergone IVF treatment will be invited to answer a questionnaire that will shed light on underlying preferences affecting their life choices.

All in all, Astrid Würtz Rasmussen explains that approximately 50,000 Danish women have undergone IVF fertility treatment in the period 1994 to 2019.

The questionnaire will also be sent to a comparison group from the general population of Danes, enabling the researchers to compare the responses of the two groups.

In addition to Astrid Würtz Rasmussen, a postdoc will be included in the project, which is being carried out in collaboration with the University of Copenhagen, Lund University in Sweden, and the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The project is expected to run over four and a half years.

»We want to understand some of these big questions. What drives the decisions we make? What influences individuals' propensity to make different types of decisions? We believe that when a major life event occurs, such as having children, it affects our decisions onwards,« says Astrid Würtz Rasmussen.

Should be a help to decision-makers

The results of the research can hopefully be of help to those who have to prioritise the funds in our society.

»When we gain a deeper understanding of what drives individual decisions, we can design more meaningful and effective policies. What is it that we should prioritise? It is therefore important to examine whether having children affects individuals – for example, by making them think more long-term and invest more in sustainable solutions. There may be some spillover effects of parenthood that can actually have large societal value,« explains Astrid Würtz Rasmussen, highlighting the perspectives of the research, which also examines differences in decision-making between men and women.

Finally, the research will also try to uncover how children are affected by having siblings.