Certainty of meeting fertility intentions declines in Europe during the 'Great Recession'

The relationship between unemployment and fertility in Italy

“…A rise in the unemployment rate may induce perceptions and expectations of job instability, economic insecurity, awareness of the crisis, and other factors that are difficult to identify or measure (Andersson 2000;Adsera 2004;Thévenon 2010;Sobotka, Skirbekk, and Philipov 2011;Kreyenfeld, Andersson, and Pailhé 2012). Researchers agree that uncertainty adversely affects fertility, highlighting the negative correlation between unemployment and family formation and reproduction, as Testa and Basten (2014) recently confirmed in their examination of fertility intentions. In addition to unemployment, other indicators reflect aspects of economic uncertainty that have become common in many European countries, such as temporary contracts, parttime work, and flexible jobs.…”

Fertility Ideals of Women and Men Across the Life Course

“…In particular, we examine how fertility ideals evolve as people age, how patterns differ by gender, and whether other factors-such as changes in an individual's partnership or employment domain-lead to changes in fertility ideals. Our study contributes to the large body of literature that has explored different concepts of fertility desires and intentions in Germany (e.g., Buhr and Kuhnt 2012;Heiland et al 2008;Keim et al 2009;Kuhnt 2013;Kuhnt and Trappe 2013;Lutz et al 2013;Marbach and Tölke 2013;Rost 2005;Ruckdeschel 2007), for other countries (e.g., Bernardi et al 2015;Iacovou and Tavares 2011;Klobas and Ajzen 2015;Liefbroer 2009;Miller 2011;Morgan 1982;Quesnel-Vallée and Morgan 2004;Spéder and Kapitány 2015;Thomson 1997; Thomson and Hoem 1998;Vignoli et al 2013) or across countries (e.g., Balbo and Mills 2011;Kapitány and Spéder 2013;Philipov et al 2006;Puur et al 2008;Régnier-Loilier et al 2011;Testa 2007;Testa and Basten 2014).…”

Will highly educated women have more children in the future? Looking at reproductive plans and outcomes

“…First, a further postponement of motherhood among highly educated women may be predicted, as we can assume that highly educated women will continue to condition their start of childbearing on the achievement of other life goals, like finding stable employment or getting married. This is particularly likely to be the case in countries that have been severely affected by economic crises, and thus have high unemployment rates (Goldstein et al 2013), increasingly precarious employment arrangements, and financial challenges (Testa and Basten 2014). Cohabitation, especially in the form of a prelude to marriage, can smooth the negative education-fertility link, even though fertility is still more likely to occur within marriage (Hiekel et al 2014).…”