Testa, Maria Rita, Bordone, Valeria , Osiewalska, Beata , Skirbekk, Vegard. 2016. Are daughters' childbearing intentions related to their mothers' socio-economic status? Demographic Research 35 (21), 581-616.
BibTeX
Abstract
Background: Unlike actual fertility, fertility intentions are often found to be positively correlated with education. The literature explaining this paradox is scarce. Objective: We aim to fill the gap in the existing scientific literature by searching for the main factors that influence highly educated women to plan a larger family size. Methods: Using the first wave of the Generations and Gender Survey for four countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, and Norway), we analyse the relationship between mother’s socio-economic status and daughter’s fertility intentions, controlling for daughter’s socio-economic status and sibship size. Zero-inflated Poisson regression models are employed to estimate the predictors of women’s additionally intended number of children. Results: We find that the effect of family of origin is exerted mainly through sibship size among childless daughters: Daughters with more siblings intend to have more children. After the transition to parenthood, the effect of family of origin is exerted mainly through the mother’s level of education: Daughters with highly educated mothers intend to have more children. Conclusions: The empirical results suggest that the positive link between births intentions and level of education might not merely be an artefact generated by the design of cross-sectional surveys but the outcome of a better socio-economic status that allows forming positive reproductive plans. Contribution: The positive role of mother’s socio-economic status on daughter’s fertility decision-making offers a valuable interpretation of the positive link between education and fertility intentions which goes beyond the alternative explanations referring to self-selection, partner effect, or time squeeze, and needs to be confirmed by further research.
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Status of publication | Published |
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Affiliation | WU |
Type of publication | Journal article |
Journal | Demographic Research |
Citation Index | SSCI |
Language | English |
Title | Are daughters' childbearing intentions related to their mothers' socio-economic status? |
Volume | 35 |
Number | 21 |
Year | 2016 |
Page from | 581 |
Page to | 616 |
Reviewed? | Y |
URL | http://www.demographic-research.org/Volumes/Vol35/21/ |
DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2016.35.21 |
Associations
- Projects
- Reproductive Decision-Making and Human Capital
- People
- Testa, Maria Rita (Former researcher)
- External
- Bordone, Valeria (Centre for Research on Ageing and ESRC Centre for Population Change, University of Southampton, United Kingdom)
- Osiewalska, Beata (Cracow University of Economics, Department of Demography, Poland)
- Skirbekk, Vegard (Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo and Columbia Aging Center at Columbia University, New York, Norway)
- Organization
- Demography Group AB (Former organization)
- Research areas (Ă–STAT Classification 'Statistik Austria')
- 5404 Demography (Details)
- 5702 Population statistics (Details)
- 5703 Demography (Details)