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

Gemmill, Alison

doi:10.1007/s13524-018-0739-7

Cited by 63Family Dynamics and RelationshipsReproductive Health and TechnologiesReproductive Health and Contraception

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

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Gemmill, Alison·2019·Demography

DOI 10.1007/s13524-018-0739-7PMC PMC6557585

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Abstract

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.

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Authors: Gemmill, A.
Affiliations: Stony Brook University (US)
Corresponding author: Gemmill, Alison
ORCID: Gemmill, Alison
Venue: Demography
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 2018-11-14
Volume: 56
Issue: 1
Pages: 129-149
ISSN: 0070-3370 (ISSN-L)
1533-7790
DOI: 10.1007/s13524-018-0739-7
PMC: PMC6557585
OpenAlex: W2901640875
Cited by: 63
References: 63
Citations by year: 2026: 5 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 1
FWCI: 9.79
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: bronze
doi.org
Licence: www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
Locations: Demography (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Funders: Johnson and Johnson
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (T32HD007275)
Topics: Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Reproductive Health and Technologies
Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Reproductive Health and Contraception
Keywords: fertility expectations, life course, women, race and ethnicity, marital history
MeSH terms: Adult, Decision Making, Female, Fertility, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Longitudinal Studies, Surveys and Questionnaires, United States, Qualitative Research, Reproductive Behavior

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

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