Are daughters' childbearing intentions related to their mothers' socio-economic status?

Maria Rita Testa, Valeria Bordone, Beata Osiewalska, Vegard Skirbekk

    Publikation: Wissenschaftliche FachzeitschriftOriginalbeitrag in FachzeitschriftBegutachtung

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    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.
    OriginalspracheEnglisch
    Seiten (von - bis)581 - 616
    FachzeitschriftDemographic Research
    Jahrgang35
    Ausgabenummer21
    DOIs
    PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 2016

    Bibliographische Notiz

    Aktualisierte Version

    Österreichische Systematik der Wissenschaftszweige (ÖFOS)

    • 504006 Demographie
    • 504004 Bevölkerungsstatistik

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