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Work–Family Conflict and Fertility Intentions: Does Gender Matter?

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Abstract

Fertility among employed women remains far below their desired preferences. Although research has shown that fertility intentions significantly predict subsequent behavior, little is known about the factors that contribute to intentions. We assess the impacts of perceived self and partner work-to-family and family-to-work conflict on the fertility intentions of both women and men. Using a national probability sample of men and women in dual-earner families (N = 630), we find that men’s perceptions of their wives’ work–family conflict significantly predict men’s fertility intentions, even though men’s own work–family conflict does not. Neither women’s own work–family conflict nor their perceptions of their husbands’ work–family conflict predicts women’s fertility intentions.

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Notes

  1. We also considered a variable to control for affect, as MacDermid and Harvey (2006) suggest, but the explanatory power of the regressions was not improved.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Jean Wallace for her editing assistance in preparing this manuscript. Appreciation is also extended to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful reviews. This research was supported in part by Grant 5 R24 HD41025 from the National Institute on Aging and the Pennsylvania State University Population Research Institute, with core support from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant 1 HD282663 (Alan Booth, David R. Johnson, Paul Amato, and Stacy Silver are the current co-PIs).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development and Family Science, Oklahoma State University, 700 N. Greenwood Ave., Tulsa, OK, 74106, USA

    Karina M. Shreffler

  2. Bright Futures Materials Development and Promotion Division of Developmental Pediatrics and Preventive Services, American Academy of Pediatrics, 141 Northwest Point Blvd., Elk Grove Village, IL, 60007, USA

    Amy E. Pirretti

  3. Department of Labor Studies and Industrial Relations, The Pennsylvania State University, 133 Willard, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Robert Drago

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  1. Karina M. Shreffler
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  2. Amy E. Pirretti
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  3. Robert Drago
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Correspondence to Karina M. Shreffler.

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An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2005 annual meeting of the National Council on Family Relations.

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Shreffler, K.M., Pirretti, A.E. & Drago, R. Work–Family Conflict and Fertility Intentions: Does Gender Matter?. J Fam Econ Iss 31, 228–240 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-010-9187-2

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