While popular culture is littered with the stereotype of the aging woman who's desperate to have kids before time runs out, a new study suggests that childless men are actually more likely to regret not having a baby.
New research presented at the British Sociological Association found that childless men who want kids are almost twice as likely than women to feel isolation about their inability to do so (50 percent vs. 27 percent). Men are also more likely than women to be depressed, angry, sad and jealous about not having a family.
Among the 27 men and 81 women included in the small study, the desire to procreate was about even, with 59 percent of men and 63 percent of women admitting to paternal urges. (So much for the perpetual bachelor afraid to commit to family life!)
However, men and women's reasons for wanting kids are very different. While the ladies cited "personal desire" as motivation in addition to feeling their biological clocks ticking, men feel the most pressure from their family, culture and society.
Amid these cliché-busting findings, there's one stat that will surprise no one: while none of the men in the study experienced guilt about not having kids, 16 percent of the women did.
