Family context and adolescents' fertility expectations

Associations between factors in childhood and young adulthood and childlessness among women in their 40s: A national prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

While the risk factors for infertility are well-established, research on factors associated with voluntary childlessness is limited and mainly focused on adulthood factors. Thus, we examined the associations between factors in childhood and young adulthood and different types of childlessness.

METHODS

The analysis included 4653 women from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health from 1996 to 2021. Childlessness was categorised as: voluntary, due to infertility issues, or due to other reasons. The associations between factors in childhood and young adulthood and childlessness were assessed using multinomial logistic regression models.

RESULTS

In their 40s, 4.8 % of women were voluntarily childless, 6.7 % were childless due to infertility issues, and 7.8 % were childless due to other reasons. Regardless of types of childlessness, being childless was associated with poorer self-rated health during childhood and having been unpartnered and obese in young adulthood. Ex-smokers in young adulthood had lower odds of childlessness. Childhood physical abuse was associated with childlessness due to infertility issues and other reasons. Voluntary childlessness and childlessness due to infertility issues were associated with having identified as non-exclusively heterosexual in early adulthood. Lower social support in early adulthood was associated with voluntary childlessness and childlessness due to other reasons.

LIMITATIONS

The direction of the associations could not be determined and using self-reported data may introduce recall bias.

CONCLUSIONS

Factors in childhood and young adulthood were associated with different types of childlessness, highlighting the importance of adopting a life course perspective when studying childlessness.

Assessing Biomedical and Psychosocial Factors in a Cross-Sectional Study of School Dropouts Among Pregnant Adolescents and Young Mothers in Quito, Ecuador

BACKGROUND

Over nearly three decades, Ecuador experienced a significant rise in adolescent motherhood.

OBJECTIVES

By focusing on social, health, and psychological aspects, the research aims to reveal the complex factors influencing the decision to discontinue education. The emphasis on providing a platform for direct expression of personal experiences not only adds qualitative depth to the study but also ensures that the voices of those involved are heard authentically.

METHODS

Employing a nonexperimental, descriptive, cross-sectional approach with qualitative and quantitative methods, the research delves into the interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors. Descriptive statistics, presented through tables and graphs, were used for variable analysis, complemented by inferential statistics to validate hypotheses. Focus group sessions, processed with ATLAS.ti (ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH, Berlin, Germany) underwent a thorough review in workshops with Servicio de Atención Integral para Adolescentes (SAIA) experts. Adolescent participants were randomly recruited through the hospital's system.

RESULTS

The findings unveiled a significant dropout rate among adolescents, where pregnancy was just one factor influencing their decision. Those discontinuing education often embraced a life project centered on motherhood and domestic roles, facing domestic violence and mental health disorders. In contrast, those persisting with education were driven by professional development, facing challenges but benefiting from family support. Despite unwanted pregnancies and low contraceptive use, many found personal growth and identity affirmation in motherhood.

CONCLUSIONS

Our research highlights key insights into factors like pregnancy desire, contraception, reactions, and challenges. Urgent action is needed to address systemic problems and provide holistic support, acknowledging the resilience and validity of choices made by adolescent mothers in balancing motherhood with education and career goals.

Why and when choosing child-free life in Sweden? Reasons, influencing factors and personal and societal factors: Individual interviews during 2020-2021

OBJECTIVE

Few studies have examined a voluntarily child-free life in the Nordic countries. The aim of this study was to explore reasons, influencing factors, and personal and social factors in individuals who chose to lead a child-free life in Sweden.

METHODS

Twenty-three individual interviews were conducted during 2020-2021, and data were analysed through thematic network analysis.

RESULTS

The organising themes captured how the informants discovered pathways and managed social structures to feel certain in their decision to lead a child-free life. The informants highlighted freedom, independence and governing their own time in everyday life and acknowledged the younger generation as being more open-minded towards child-free individuals.

CONCLUSIONS

All the informants, who had chosen to lead a child-free life, were confident in their decision. They appreciated living in a country where it was possible to make this personal and important life choice independently. Further knowledge is needed about remaining child-free.

Toward an Intersectional Psychological Science of Reproductive Norms: Generating Research Across the Natalism Spectrum

Pronatalism is the belief system that encourages parenthood and reproduction, supporting the notion that a woman’s value is rooted in her ability to give birth to and parent children. Pronatalist expectations are disproportionately applied to high-status women in the United States, prescribing not only that women are supposed to reproduce, but which women are supposed to reproduce. Those who deviate from this hegemonic idea of a prototypical mother may disproportionately encounter antinatalist norms that prescribe that they should not bear or parent children. In the present article, I advocate for an intersectional psychological study of reproductive norms across the natalism spectrum, grounded in interdisciplinary insights and an understanding of systems of power and oppression. I discuss three common areas of interdisciplinary research related to reproductive norms: (a) pronatalism as a limit to women’s freedom, (b) racism and the control of Black women’s reproduction, and (c) queer perspectives on reproduction. Informed by intersectionality and stigma frameworks, I propose a generative model and six research questions that serve as a research agenda for the psychological study of reproductive norms across the natalism spectrum.

From Some to None? Fertility Expectation Dynamics of Permanently Childless Women

Permanent childlessness is increasingly acknowledged as an outcome of a dynamic, context-dependent process, but few studies have integrated a life course framework to investigate the complex pathways leading to childlessness. This study focuses on an understudied yet revealing dimension of why individuals remain childless: stated fertility expectations over the life course. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort, I use a combination of sequence analysis, data-driven clustering techniques, and multivariable regression models to identify and describe groups of permanently childless women who follow similar trajectories of stated fertility expectations. Results indicate that a little more than one-half (56 %) of eventually childless women fall into a cluster where childlessness is expected before age 30. Women in the remaining clusters (44 %) transition to expecting childlessness later in the life course but are differentiated by the types of trajectories that precede the emergence of a childless expectation. Results from multivariable regression show that several respondent characteristics, including race/ethnicity, education, and marital history, predict cluster membership. Taken together, these findings add to a growing body of literature that provides a more nuanced description of permanently childless women and motivates further research that integrates interdependencies between life course domains and fertility expectations and decision-making of those who remain childless.

Does Migrant Background Matter for Adolescents' Fertility Preferences? The Latin American 1.5 Generation in Spain

This article examines the fertility preferences of Latin American adolescents of the 1.5 generation and their native peers in Spain. We compare their expected age at first birth as well as their expected family size. The fertility preferences of the 1.5 generation are likely to reflect the family values of two different socialization environments as well as the adaptation process to the childbearing norms of the host society. The analysis is based on the Chances Survey, which collected data from 2700 adolescents in secondary schools in Madrid in 2011. Results indicate that fertility timing preferences of Latin American adolescents reflect socialization influences from the society of origin, but also a quick adaptation to the childbearing norms in the host society, since their expected age at first birth is somewhat earlier than that of their Spanish peers but considerably later than that prevailing in their country of origin. The degree of social integration, measured by the number of the respondent's best friends who were Spanish, seems more important than age at migration for diminishing the gap between Latin Americans and Spaniards. Moreover, higher educational expectations are associated with preferences for postponed entry into parenthood. With regard to family size expectations, we find no significant variation between adolescents of migrant and native origin, confirming the argument that the "two-child norm" currently prevails in both middle- and high-income countries.

Long-Term Effect of Exposure to a Friend's Adolescent Childbirth on Fertility, Education, and Earnings

PURPOSE

To examine the long-term effect of a female adolescent's exposure to a peer's childbirth on fertility, schooling, and earnings.

METHODS

Estimating causal peer effects in fertility is challenging because the exposure variable (peer pregnancy and childbirth) is nonrandomly assigned. Miscarriages in early pregnancy occur spontaneously in a significant proportion of pregnancies and, therefore, create a natural experiment within which the causal effect of childbirth can be examined. This exploratory study compared adjusted fertility, educational, and labor market outcomes of female adolescents whose adolescent pregnant friend gave birth to female adolescents whose pregnant friend miscarried. Longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were analyzed using logistic, ordinal logistic, linear, and log-linear regressions.

RESULTS

Females whose adolescent pregnant friends gave birth (instead of miscarried) had decreased adolescent sexual activity, pregnancy, and teen childbearing and increased educational attainment, but there were no significant long-term effects on total fertility or differences in labor market outcomes, relative to females whose pregnant adolescent friend miscarried.

CONCLUSIONS

Adolescent females appear to learn vicariously from teen childbearing experiences of their friends, resulting in delayed childbearing and higher educational attainment. Interventions that expose adolescents to the reality of teen motherhood may be an effective way of reducing the rates of teen childbearing and improving schooling.

Adolescent Latino Reproductive Health: A Review of the Literature

Latino adolescent reproductive health has become an increasingly important topic because of the growth in the numbers of Latino youth and because Latino youth are at high risk for negative reproductive health outcomes. Latinas now have the highest teen birth rates, and Latinos have disproportionately high rates of HIV/AIDS. These trends highlight the need for greater understanding of the sexual and reproductive health and behavior of Latino youth. This overview provides an introduction to key aspects of the Latino population. It then examines and synthesizes the existing literature by domains useful to the study of Latinos. Areas that receive in-depth coverage are socioeconomic status, family, national origin, peers and partners, and acculturation. Based on the current state of knowledge and the issues facing young Latinos, suggestions for future research and uses for existing data and past research are included.

Mother-Daughter Communication about Sex among Urban African American and Latino Families

Urban minority girls are at considerable risk for the negative health consequences of early sexual activity. Yet few researchers have explored the sources of information about sexual issues for these adolescents, particularly parent-child communication. As part of a larger qualitative study examining social cognitions about sexuality among urban girls, 72 African American and Latina mothers and 72 daughters representing two age groups (6-9 and 10-13) participated in focus group sessions. Both mothers and daughters addressed the cues associated with the timing of these conversations in the course of the daughters’ development; the content of their conversations, including the messages mothers used to influence girls’ decision making; and the approaches or strategies both employed. The authors’ analyses indicate that beneficial communication may be preempted by the antagonistic positions adopted by daughters and mothers as daughters advance sexually. Daughters may in fact benefit more from receiving sex education from other close sources.

In high school and pregnant: the importance of educational and fertility expectations for subsequent outcomes

This study uses the High School and Beyond data (1980–1992) to examine the importance of educational and fertility expectations in explaining the achievement gap of adolescent mothers for over 5,500 young women from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Using a non-parametric local propensity score regression, the study finds that the economic disadvantage associated with having a child in high school is particularly large in poor socioeconomic environments; however, this disadvantage is a result of preexisting differences in the educational and fertility expectations and is not because of a diminished capacity of the socioeconomic environment to mediate the effect of an unplanned childbirth. The findings suggest that childcare assistance and other policies designed to alleviate the burden of child rearing for young mothers of low means may not produce the desired improvement in their subsequent educational and labor market outcomes. A much earlier policy intervention with a focus on fostering young women's outlook for the future is needed.

Life-Course Transitions Among Adolescents With and Without Disabilities: A Longitudinal Examination of Expectations and Outcomes

Research on adolescents suggests that young people are able to form reasonable expectations about future life-course transitions-and that these expectations are predictive of future outcomes. However, less is known about how these expectations might vary for adolescents with disabilities, who might face additional challenges when transitioning to adulthood. The present study addresses this gap in the literature by using nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) to suggest that young people's expectations about pregnancy, parenthood, education, and employment do vary according to disability status. Furthermore, disability status conditions the relationship between these expectations and their future outcomes. In general, adolescents with disabilities are more proficient in the prediction of educational outcomes than employment or pregnancy outcomes. However, their expectations about education are significantly lower-and expectations about teenage parenthood much higher-than those of adolescents without disabilities.

Intergenerational transmission of reproductive behaviour in Botswana

The purpose of this study was to investigate intergenerational transmission of reproductive behaviour in Botswana. The major source of data was the 2001 Botswana AIDS Impact Survey where a nationally representative random sample of men and women aged 10-64 years was selected using a stratified two-stage probability sample design. Covariates in the analysis include age, education, marital status, religion, age at first birth, residence, duration at residence and contraceptive use. The main analytical technique is linear regression. The results indicate that the reproductive behaviour of older generations has a significantly positive influence on the reproductive behaviour of the subsequent generation, but does not affect the subsequent generation homogeneously. The effect appeared much stronger for women who initiated childbearing at an older age, for women who had never been to school, and for the cohort aged 50-59 years. These findings suggest that number of siblings, as a reproductive behaviour determinant, may very well have confounded previous reproductive behaviour analyses in Botswana. The study draws attention to the importance of the effect of origin family size in determining reproductive behaviour outcomes in Botswana.

Adolescent expectations and desires about marriage and parenthood

Using data collected in 2000 on a racially and ethnically diverse sample of high school seniors, this study analyzes adolescents' expectations and desires about marriage and parenthood, including unwed parenthood. The conceptual framework combines family context, opportunity cost, and social-psychological perspectives. Each perspective receives empirical support. Race, ethnicity, gender, parental education, and parental expectations for their child's education show significant relationships with expectations and desires about marriage and parenthood. Adolescents with higher opportunity costs, as indicated by better grades and higher expectations for their schooling, expect and desire to marry and have children at older ages. The relationships between parental education and parental expectations for their child's education and the outcomes are largely mediated through opportunity costs. Significant relationships between locus of control and the outcomes provide empirical support for the social-psychological element of the framework.