The article focuses on findings that were replicated across several countries and considers their relevance for future older adults. Key findings are that (a) childlessness makes more of a difference in men's than in women's lives, (b) never-married women are a childless category with particularly favorable characteristics, and (c) childless…

This paper comments on and suggests alternatives to assumptions concerning child-rearing currently held by many Australians. That family-child relationships change as societies and economies change is a fact not commonly taken for granted, but is a conclusion reached by scholars examining the history of childhood. Recently in Australia, as…