Educational differences in fertility desires, intentions and behaviour: A life course perspective

Abstract

Despite a long tradition of studying the relationship between education and fertility outcomes less is known about how educational differences in fertility intentions are formed and translated into achieved births over the life course. This paper provides new insights using data from a large cohort study and Miller's Traits-Desires-Intentions-Behaviour framework for understanding childbearing. We examine how parental aspirations for education, educational ability in childhood, and educational attainment in young adulthood relate to: males' and females' fertility desires in adolescence; fertility intentions in early adulthood; and educational differences in the achievement of fertility intentions. We conclude that family building preferences expressed in adolescence, especially those for the timing of entry into parenthood are shaped by parental socio-economic background, mediated through educational ability and parental expectations for education. In young adulthood, no clear, consistent educational gradient in intended family size is found. However, there is a negative educational gradient in the likelihood of achieving intended births by age 46, especially for women. The findings indicate the importance of educational differences in employment and partnership behaviour in mediating these relationships.

Educational differences in timing and quantum of childbearing in Britain

“…For example, among women born in the 1960s who have their first birth aged 30-34, average completed family size is 2.06 for those with degrees, as compared with 1.85 for those with less than Ordinary (O) Level qualifications. This is what we would expect given selection mechanisms and the postponement and recuperation of childbearing among more-educated women (Rendall et al 2010;Berrington and Pattaro 2014). What is perhaps more unexpected is the way in which these educational differences have remained relatively stable over the cohorts born over a 30 year period.…”

“…Given the generally small educational differential in intended fertility reported in the UK and other European countries (De Wachter and Neels 2012;Testa 2012;Berrington and Pattaro 2014), the large educational differences seen in the UK in childlessness and completed family size suggest that, for these cohorts at least, barriers to combining motherhood and careers remained for more educated women (Sigle-Rushton and Waldfogel 2007). Whilst it is beyond the scope of this paper to identify what these barriers might be, previous research suggests that they could include the lack of acceptance in public attitudes of women with young children working full-time (O'Reilly, Nazio, and Roche 2014); the lack of family-friendly policies, especially for mothers working in the UK private sector (Adsera 2004); and high levels of part-time employment among working mothers in the UK, which limits access to professional careers that are less likely to accommodate flexible working arrangements (Joshi 2002).…”

“…Currently, the level of childlessness in the UK is relatively high, and educational differences in childlessness are large and stable by European standards (McAllister and Clarke 2000; Kneale and Joshi 2008;Berrington and Pattaro 2014;Wood, Neels, and Kil 2014). Survey data suggest that childlessness in the UK is largely involuntary since relatively few women (or indeed men) of any educational level report that they intend to have no children (Ni Bhrolchain, Beaujouan, and Berrington 2010;Berrington and Pattaro 2011;Berrington in press).…”

Childlessness in the UK

“…Such individuals, who express a positive fertility intention but postpone childbearing until it is "too late", are described by Berrington (2004) as "perpetual postponers". Recent UK data confirm that very few individuals report that they wish to remain childless, including people who are still childless in their thirties (Ní Bhrolcháin et al 2010;Berrington and Pattaro 2014). Some of these men and women will not be able to have the children they desire, due to agerelated infecundability.…”

“…The UK is fortunate to have a number of birth cohort studies that have followed respondents from birth to adulthood. Data collected from people born in Britain in 1946 and 1958 have provided us with new insights into the parental background and life course factors associated with intentions to remain childless and childbearing outcomes (Kiernan 1989;Kneale and Joshi 2008;Berrington and Pattaro 2014). In this chapter, we use data for men and women born in Britain in one week of April 1970 (BCS70) who have been followed up in multiple waves of data collection through childhood and early 1 The data are weighted to take account of survey design and non-response Knies 2014).…”