Abstract

This study explored the childbearing decision-making process among 13 childless married individuals (6 males, 7 females, including 4 couples) in the Seoul metropolitan area through in-depth interviews, applying Glaser’s grounded theory. The analysis revealed that a eudaimonic perspective on happiness, which frames children as partners in psychological growth and well-being, served as the foundation for the provisional decision to have children. This provisional decision was either finalized or postponed through a dynamic process of continuously evaluating and adjusting subjective readiness for parenthood, in which childbearing facilitators and childbearing delay factors were comprehensively considered. The final confirmation of the childbearing decision was driven by marital collective efficacy as a core mechanism, referring to a future-oriented shared confidence grounded in relational competence and trust accumulated through the experience of resolving marital conflicts. This study moves beyond the focus on removing barriers to childbirth and illuminates the psychological resources and meaning-making processes that make childbearing possible. It is significant in that it inductively theorizes the dynamic psychological process through which factors across individual, relational, organizational, institutional, and socio-cultural dimensions organically interact within an individual’s internal experience to arrive at a childbearing decision, and demonstrates that this process is grounded in relational competence and subjective predictability. Finally, the study suggests directions for follow-up research on diverse groups of young adults and discusses the need to foster psyhological and social conditions that enable young adults to choose parenthood on their own.