Influences on Childbearing Intentions Across the Fertility Career: Demographic and Socioeconomic Factors and the Value of Children

Abstract

The influence of various determinants of childbearing intentions throughout the fertility career is investigated using data for 7 countries from the Value of Children project. It is hypothesized that several sets of determinants--age and childbearing experience socioeconomic characteristics and values and disvalues attached to children--have distinctive effects on fertility intentions at particular parities. Desire for another child and ideal family size are taken to represent fertility intentions. From cognitive-balance principles it is argued that these 2 measures are interdependent; they are treated as jointly determined in 2-stage least squares regressions run first across all parities and then within specific parities. Some hypotheses particularly those relating to gender preference receive good support; others such as those relating to income and education do not. Mixed results are reported for the predicted effects of values and disvalues. In interpreting the results attention is directed to contrasts between the 2 measures of fertility intentions to the implications of the relative importance of particular factors across countries and to the usefulness of a perspective on fertility decision making that combines the single-decision and the successive-decisions approaches. (authors modified)