The study examined the effect of personality on how likely a person is to have children, using extensive survey and birth registry data from Norway. It also found that men who are extraverted and open tend to have more children, while women who rank as conscientious on personality tests tend to have fewer children<\/strong>, although these findings were constant across generations.<\/p>\n The study could have important implications for population dynamics at a time when fertility rates across developed countries have fallen to below replacement rates. Personality effects may be one factor contributing to the decline of fertility rates in Europe, says International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis\u2019 (IIASA) Vegard Skirbekk, who led the study, but they have not previously been studied in detail.\u00a0 Population changes are an important factor for projecting future changes in sustainability, climate, energy, and food security<\/strong>, IIASA\u2019s core research areas.<\/p>\n In particular, Skirbekk notes the decline in childbearing among neurotic men\u2014neurotic meaning individuals who tend to be moody and emotional<\/strong>. The study found that the effect only applies for men born after 1957. Skirbekk says that the change in these men\u2019s fertility could be due to new norms in having children, for example that couples today wait longer to have children, and couples tend to test each other out more before committing to raising children together.<\/p>\n The study was made possible by Norway\u2019s very detailed birth records and an integrated personality survey, which allowed the researchers to examine the connections between both female and male fertility and personality. \u201cFor men, often you don\u2019t know exactly how many children they have because information is not matched in the registries, but for Norway we have very exact information<\/strong>\u201d says Skirbekk.<\/p>\n While the study only considers Norway, Skirbekk says that the findings likely apply more widely. \u201cNorway is a leader country in terms of family dynamics,\u201d says Skirbekk, \u201cMany trends that have been observed first in Norway\u2014increasing cohabitation, divorce rates, and later marriage, for example\u2014have then been observed later in many other parts of the world<\/strong>. Of course it remains to be seen if this phenomenon will also spread.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Reference<\/b> From the IIASA media release: Men with neurotic personality traits are having fewer children compared to previous generations, according to a new study published in the\u00a0European Journal of Personality. The… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[339,9,340],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15298"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15298"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15303,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15298\/revisions\/15303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"pregnancy](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/pregnancy-couple.jpg\")
<\/a>Men with neurotic personality traits are having fewer children compared to previous generations<\/strong>, according to a new study published in the\u00a0European Journal of Personality<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\nSkirbekk, V. and Blekesaune, M. (2013), Personality Traits Increasingly Important for Male Fertility: Evidence from Norway. Eur. J. Pers.\u00a0doi:\u00a010.1002\/per.1936<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"