The impact of kin availability, parental religiosity, and nativity on fertility differentials in the late 19th-century United States

Abstract

METHODS Most quantitative research on fertility decline in the United States ignores the potential impact of cultural and familial factors. We rely on new complete-count data from the 1880 U.S. census to construct couple-level measures of nativity/ethnicity, religiosity, and kin availability. We include these measures with a comprehensive set of demographic, economic, and contextual variables in Poisson regression models of net marital fertility to assess their relative importance. We construct models with and without area fixed effects to control for unobserved heterogeneity. CONTRIBUTION All else being equal, we find a strong impact of nativity on recent net marital fertility. Fertility differentials among second generation couples relative to the native-born white population of native parentage were in most cases less than half of the differential observed among first generation immigrants, suggesting greater assimilation to native-born American childbearing norms. Our measures of parental religiosity and familial propinquity indicated a more modest impact on marital fertility. Couples who chose biblical names for their children had approximately 3% more children than couples relying on secular names while the presence of a potential mother-in-law in a nearby households was associated with 2% more children. Overall, our results demonstrate the need for more inclusive models of fertility behavior that include cultural and familial covariates.

The decline of patrilineal kin propinquity in the United States, 1790–1940

“…In general, the percentage of older kin increased over time while the percentage of same-age or younger kin declined. For example, kin propinquity rates for 40-44-year-olds living near siblings were higher in 1850 than 1940 (higher fertility/sibling availability), with the reverse pattern for parents (declining mortality/fewer siblings over time) between 1850 and 1940 (Hacker and Roberts 2017). A breakdown of kin propinquity by nativity, race, and urban/rural status shows several revealing patterns (Table 3).…”

“…The decline in kin propinquity closely mirrored other long-run demographic and economic trends such as the decline of intergenerational coresidence, declining fertility, and the decline in agricultural employment. Given changes in general attitudes towards family values such as divorce, single parenthood, and cohabitation, it seems that the decline in kin propinquity further reflected changing social norms revolving around kinship (Hacker and Roberts 2017;Ruggles 2007Ruggles , 2015. Distance between families also increased during this time period, suggesting a change in preference for living next door to kin, but also improvements in transportation allowing for kin to still live nearby while not living next door.…”

“…Kin propinquity plays an important role for families as emotional and physical support. Furthermore, kin propinquity likely played a role in demographic outcomes such as fertility, mortality, and migration (Hacker and Roberts 2017). Explaining the role of kin propinquity in these outcomes requires having a reliable measure, and this work is now possible in historical contexts using complete count census data.…”

“…employment, and the fertility decline in the United States(Hacker 2003;Hacker and Roberts 2017;Ruggles 2007).…”

“Big Data” in Economic History

“…Geographic precision in census data derives from the original and fundamental purpose of censuses: to provide data to governments for administration and apportionment of populations to political boundaries. Scholarship that utilizes geographical precision includes work on residential segregation in the United States (Logan and Zhang, 2012, Logan and Parman, 2017) and the influence of kin in neighboring households on fertility (Hacker and Roberts, 2017).…”