How Early Life Religious Exposure Relates to the Timing of First Birth

Abstract

This paper examines intermediary processes explaining how religious socialization and involvement early in life are related to the timing of first births for women in the United States. The theory of conjunctural action forms the basis for hypotheses for how religious schema and materials operate to influence birth timing. Using the NLSY79 data and event history methods, the study finds evidence for expected family size, work-family gender ideology, educational attainment and enrollment, cohabitation, and age at marriage as mediators of associations between early life religious exposure (affiliation and attendance) and the timing of nonmaritally and maritally conceived first births. These findings corroborate other research identifying the long reach of religious socialization and involvement in youth, elucidate some of the pathways for these connections, and motivate further work to understand linkages between religion and family behaviors in the United States.

Fertility desires, intentions, and behaviour

“…The CSM is consistent with numerous empirical studies that have highlighted the uncertainty in reported intentions (Berrington 2004;Morgan 1981;Ni Bhrolcháin and Beaujouan 2019;Trinitapoli and Yeatman 2018); changes in intentions, particularly during the early life course (Berrington and Pattaro 2014;Hayford 2009;Iacovou and Tavares 2011;Liefbroer 2009;Rybińska and Morgan 2018); and the mismatch between stated intentions and fertility outcomes (Berrington 2017;Quesnel-Vallée and Morgan 2003;Rackin and Bachrach 2016). Empirical evidence supports the idea that fertility decision-making processes can be affected by early exposure to schemas, such as schemas that stress famialistic ideals and traditional gender roles as part of religious upbringing (Pearce andDavis 2016, p. 1433). Other research has found evidence consistent with the hypothesis that fertility intentions become more accurate in their predictions following key life course events, such as marriage and entry into motherhood (Rackin and Bachrach 2016).…”

Predictor Variables of Childbearing Motivations in Brazilian Women and Men

“…Considering that Brazil is currently the country with the largest number of Christians in the world, with 50% of the population being Catholic and 31% Evangelical (Alves, Cavenaghi, Barros, & Carvalho, 2017), the relationship between religiosity and PCM becomes an important variable to be analyzed. Religious practice is related to the transmission of family-centered values (Miller & Pasta, 1995), which emphasizes reproduction as the main goal of family formation, which may explain the predictive power of this variable in PCM, highlighting positive aspects of childbearing (Pearce & Davis, 2016).…”

Pathways to Parenthood in Social and Family Contexts: Decade in Review, 2020

“…People draw on salient aspects of social structure, both schemas and material elements, to interpret a conjuncture—the nature of the situation, the decision required, and the possible actions—and to choose among possible paths and resolutions. TCA was developed as a way of understanding family behavior broadly, but many of the initial applications were to fertility intentions and behavior, and it has been used to study religious influences on fertility (Marshall & Shepherd, ; Pearce & Davis, ), work–family conflict and fertility intentions (Hanappi, Ryser, & Bernardi, ), and contraceptive technology (Gomez, Mann, & Torres, ), among other topics. Overall, TCA provides a structured way to integrate beliefs, values, and identity into the study of childbearing and thus could be a point of contact between more demographically oriented fertility research and the sociology of reproduction (for a thorough review, see Almeling []).…”