Voluntary and involuntary childlessness in the United States, 1955–1973

Poston, Dudley L.; Kramer, Kathryn B.

doi:10.1080/19485565.1983.9988543

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“… 2001 ). Additionally, male infertility may actually have increased with development as a consequence of rises in chemical exposure, stress, psychoses, drug and alcohol abuse, epidemics, hormone imbalance and tobacco consumption, a phenomenon we have also observed in more developed regions (Poston and Kramer 1983 ; Sengupta et al. 2017 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

Childlessness and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Is There Evidence for a U-shaped Pattern?

Verkroost

Monden

2022

Eur J Population

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In high-income countries, women increasingly remain permanently childless. Little is known about the relationship between childlessness and socioeconomic development in non-Western societies and particularly sub-Saharan Africa. At lower levels of development, poverty-driven (i.e., involuntary) childlessness may decrease with increases in levels of development, while at higher levels of development opportunity-driven (i.e., voluntary and circumstantial) childlessness may rise with development. Thus, we expect a U-shaped relationship between childlessness and development overall. We examine this idea for sub-Saharan Africa. We further contribute by differentiating between female and male childlessness; and between involuntary, voluntary and circumstantial childlessness. Moreover, we construct new indicators of subnational historical development to assess both inter- and intra-country variation, and distinguish between three components (health, education and income) to investigate the drivers behind the hypothesized U-shaped relationship. Using 291 Demographic and Health Surveys between 1986 and 2018 from 38 countries and 384 regions, we find a U-shaped relationship between female childlessness and development, and a linear relationship for men. The U-shape for women results from negative associations of female involuntary childlessness with health and educational advancements, combined with positive correlations of voluntary and circumstantial childlessness with education and income improvements. While these positive associations are stronger among men than women, the negative relationships of involuntary childlessness with health and education observed for women are absent for men, resulting in an overall positive and linear relationship between development and childlessness among men. Our findings have implications for how we might expect childlessness rates to evolve with future levels of development.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

Childlessness and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Is There Evidence for a U-shaped Pattern?

Verkroost

Monden

2022

Eur J Population

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Parity rates in the United States have varied significantly by cohort in the first half of the 20th century (Davis, 1982; Morgan, 1991; Poston & Gotard, 1977; Poston & Kramer, 1983; Rowland, 2007; Schoen, 2006; Westoff, 1954). According to Morgan (1991), childlessness among White women (45 years and older) increased early in the 20th century, peaked for women in their childbearing years during the Great Depression, and then fell precipitously for the “cohorts that produced the baby boom” (p. 781).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Variations of Parity Status as a Predictor of Disability Onset Among Old-Old Women

Latham

Holcomb

2012

Journal of Family Issues

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This research investigates whether the capacity of parity status to predict disability onset varies by race among older women. Data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) (1998–2008) was used, and a series of discrete-time event-history models were estimated using multinomial logistic regression. Disability onset was constructed from five common Activities of Daily Living (ADL) measures (i.e., difficulty dressing, bathing, eating, getting in/out of bed, and walking). The initial risk group was old-old women (i.e., born before 1925) without disability in 1998 (N=2,229). Nulliparous and high parity Black women born before 1925 were more likely to develop disability onset compared to White women with the same parity status. The results suggest that parity status among Black older women may be a salient risk factor for disability onset.

show abstract

“…Popular conceptions of childlessness portray it as a trend mainly among White, high‐powered career women who either postpone childbearing until it is too late or make a conscious choice to remain child free (Cain, 2001; Carroll, 2000; Hewlett, 2002). Similarly, academic analyses are often limited to samples containing only White women (Heller, Tsai, & Chalfant, 1986; Park, 2002; Poston & Kramer, 1983) or to samples of Black women past childbearing years that are so small as to preclude separate analyses in their own right (Abma & Martinez, 2006; Heaton et al, 1999; Jacobson & Heaton, 1991; Jacobson, Heaton, & Taylor, 1988; Mosher & Bachrach, 1982). In this paper we compare Black childlessness to White childlessness directly to understand whether the factors that drive childlessness vary by race.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%