Abstract
We used a set of bivariate biometrical models to define a “competition” between the biological domain and the psychological domain to account for genetic variance measured using MZ and DZ twin correlations in the Danish Twin Registry. The biological domain is measured with the variable “waiting time to pregnancy” (a measure of fecundability), and the psychological domain is measured with the variable “age at first attempt to get pregnant” (a measure roughly equivalent to fertility motivation, at least in the Danish culture). Both domains accounted for significant parts of the genetic variance in fertility, but the biological variable consistently accounted for more of the variance than the psychological variable. We also fit models separately by time period, and found that heritabilities in these fertility-related variables do not seem to be dampening yet following their increase in post-World War II cohorts.
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Rodgers, J.L., Kohler, HP., Christensen, K. (2003). Genetic Variance in Human Fertility: Biology, Psychology, or Both?. In: Rodgers, J.L., Kohler, HP. (eds) The Biodemography of Human Reproduction and Fertility. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1137-3_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1137-3_12
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