The Filipino Family in Transition: DINKS and the Family Paradigm Shift in Northern Mindanao, Philippines

Abstract

This study examined the lives of Filipino Double Income No Kids (DINK) couples in Northern Mindanao who challenge dominant cultural expectations in a society where familialism and childbearing are strongly linked to moral worth, legacy, and social identity. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, comprising a regional online survey and in-depth interviews for cross-case analysis with select DINK couples, the research investigates public awareness, motivations, social pressures, and envisioned futures of those who consciously choose a child-free marital life. Quantitative findings reveal that 58.5% of the 215 respondents express a willingness to embrace the DINK lifestyle, suggesting a potential shift in reproductive intentions among younger Filipino cohorts. However, this emerging openness coexists with a prevailing cultural stigma. Qualitative data further uncover three major themes: (1) the negotiation of identity and autonomy under social and familial pressure; (2) strategies of disengagement or confrontation toward unsolicited comments on childlessness; and (3) long-term planning for aging, including the formation of alternative support systems outside traditional family structures. Anchored in Anthony Giddens’ Theory of Structuration, the study frames these couples’ decisions as forms of reflexive agency, challenging and reshaping normative family scripts. This study foregrounds how kinship, reproduction, and social belonging are reimagined within the Philippine context. It situates DINK couples in the broader cultural negotiations of familial expectations, intergenerational obligations, and the moral economy of family life.