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Delayed Childbearing and Childlessness

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Book cover Fertility, Living Arrangements, Care and Mobility

Part of the book series: Understanding Population Trends and Processes ((UPTA,volume 1))

Fertility patterns have changed significantly in most European countries since the 1960s. Although there are important differences both between and within countries in the pace of decline, by the 1990s fertility reached below replacement levels across Europe, with several countries experiencing lowest-low levels (less than 1.31 children per woman) (European Commission 2006a). Declining fertility is one aspect of an inter-related package of demographic trends that both reflect and constitute a transformation of the context in which people may or may not partner and parent. Debates within demography over the causes and consequences of the second demographic transition have been paralleled by sociological debate on the impact of individualism on personal life. This chapter considers these debates in relation to findings from analysis of the British cohort studies looking at changes over time in the propensity to delayed childbearing.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Fertility histories are also collected at age 23 years for the NCDS cohort; although a cross-sectional approach was favoured for the analysis of NCDS data in this study.

  2. 2.

    Initial analysis was carried out looking at religiosity. The Second Demographic Transition attributes declining fertility to, inter alia, a growth of values of self-realisation and freedom from traditional forces of authority such as religion and previous research reports a correlation between increased religious activity and more traditional attitudes to family (e.g. Berrington and Diamond, 2000; Oláh, 2005). However, while there was a decline in religiosity evident (only 11 per cent of the 1970-born cohort who defined themselves as having a religion attended services at least monthly, compared with 30 per cent of the 1958 cohort), there was no significant association with remaining childless in one’s early thirties.

  3. 3.

    Marital status distinguishes the currently married (whether first or subsequent), the previously married (the separated or divorced, as well as the very small numbers widowed in each cohort), and the never-married. Partnership status distinguishes those currently cohabiting: partnership histories record relationships in which respondents ‘lived with someone as a couple’ for a month or more. However, as Murphy (2000) observes, assuming all co-residential partnerships as equivalent raises several issues: these may differ not just in de jure status, but in terms of the meanings and motivations these hold for respondents.

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  1. Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh, UK

    Roona Simpson

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    Simpson, R. (2009). Delayed Childbearing and Childlessness. In: Kneale, D., Coast, E., Stillwell, J. (eds) Fertility, Living Arrangements, Care and Mobility. Understanding Population Trends and Processes, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9682-2_2

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