Now or later? The Theory of Planned Behavior and timing of fertility intentions

Abstract

This article focuses on the time frame of intentions to have a child. For both parents and childless people we compare those who want a child now with those who intend to have a child within the next three years. Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour and using data from Norway (N=1,307), we investigate the role of attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control on these two different time frames in fertility intention. The results show that subjective norms have a significant effect on the timing of intentions to have a child for both childless people and parents: the more both groups feel that their intention to have a child is supported by their families and friends, the more likely they are to want a child now compared to within the next three years. It also show that positive attitudes have a significant effect on intending to have a child now rather than later for parents but not for childless people. Perceived behavioural control is a significant determinant for both groups: people who consider themselves better able to cope with having child are more likely to intend to have a child now rather than within the next three years. But this effect disappears when we control for demographic background variables, suggesting that the effect of perceived control on the timing of having a child varies considerably with personal circumstances.

On the links between employment, partnership quality, and the desire to have a first child

“…Previous research on childbearing intention has focused on the influence of attitudes, norms, and the social network or social capital (Schoen et al 1997;Philipov, Spéder, and Billari 2006;Bühler and Fratczak 2007;Ruckdeschel 2007;Bühler 2008;Billari, Philipov, and Tester 2009;Dommermuth et al 2009;Klobas 2010), gender equity (Mills et al 2008;Neyer and Rieck 2009), happiness (Billari 2009), and religion (Hayford and Morgan 2008). Moreover some studies have dealt with the impact of the employment situation on childbearing intentions.…”

Are daughters’ childbearing intentions related to their mothers’ socio-economic status?

“…The intention to become a parent (parity zero) marks a crucial transition in life, whereas the intention of a higher parity transition (to second or higher birth order child) is qualitatively different and strongly affected by the experience of parenthood (Dommermuth, Klobas, and Lappegård 2011). Therefore the analysis was stratified by parity, with 4,215 daughters without any children, and 8,391 daughters with at least one child.…”

The influence of the family network on the realisation of fertility intentions

“…We focus on short-term intentions for both theoretical and practical reasons. Previous studies (Dommermuth et al 2009;Philipov 2009) have shown that short-term intentions are more accurate than long-term ones, due to the fact that people are more capable of predicting their life situation within a shorter period of time. A second more practical reason is that we use a panel dataset in this study that follows individuals for a period of 3.5 years, which permits us to examine their intentions and then behavioural outcomes during this time span.…”