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.

RIS

@ARTICLE{Testa2016,
title = {Are daughters' childbearing intentions related to their mothers' socio-economic status?},
author = {Maria Rita Testa and Valeria Bordone and Beata Osiewalska and Vegard Skirbekk},
year = {2016},
doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2016.35.21},
url = {http://www.demographic-research.org/Volumes/Vol35/21/},
volume = {35},
number = {21},
language = {EN},
pages = {581-616},
journal = {Demographic Research},
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. },
}