scholarly journals Parental Investment After the Birth of a Sibling: The Effect of Family Size in Low-Fertility China

Demography ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 2085-2111
Author(s):  
Shuang Chen
Keyword(s):  
Family Size ◽  
Parental Investment ◽  
Low Fertility

scholarly journals Parental investment and the optimization of human family size

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1563) ◽  
pp. 333-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Lawson ◽  
Ruth Mace
Keyword(s):  
Family Size ◽  
Parental Investment ◽  
Resource Competition ◽  
Reproductive Behaviour ◽  
Reproductive Rate ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Offspring Number ◽  
Adaptive Models ◽  
Fertility Limitation

Human reproductive behaviour is marked by exceptional variation at the population and individual level. Human behavioural ecologists propose adaptive hypotheses to explain this variation as shifting phenotypic optima in relation to local socioecological niches. Here we review evidence that variation in fertility (offspring number), in both traditional and modern industrialized populations, represents optimization of the life-history trade-off between reproductive rate and parental investment. While a reliance on correlational methods suggests the true costs of sibling resource competition are often poorly estimated, a range of anthropological and demographic studies confirm that parents balance family size against offspring success. Evidence of optimization is less forthcoming. Declines in fertility associated with modernization are particularly difficult to reconcile with adaptive models, because fertility limitation fails to enhance offspring reproductive success. Yet, considering alternative measures, we show that modern low fertility confers many advantages on offspring, which are probably transmitted to future generations. Evidence from populations that have undergone or initiated demographic transition indicate that these rewards to fertility limitation fall selectively on relatively wealthy individuals. The adaptive significance of modern reproductive behaviour remains difficult to evaluate, but may be best understood in response to rising investment costs of rearing socially and economically competitive offspring.

scholarly journals Costly children: the motivations for parental investment in children in a low fertility context

Genus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne H. Gauthier ◽  
Petra W. de Jong
Keyword(s):  
Parental Investment ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Time Investment ◽  
Investment In Children ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Self Development ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Human And Social Capital ◽  
Large Investment

AbstractWhile the literature has documented a general increase in parental investment in children, both in terms of financial and time investment, the motives for this increase remain unclear. This paper aims at shedding light on these motives by examining parents’ own narratives of their parenting experiences from the vantage point of three theoretical perspectives. In doing so, the paper brings side-by-side the goal of providing children with human and social capital to improve their future labour market prospects, the pressures on parents to conform to new societal standards of good and intensive parenting, and the experience of parenting as part of self-development. The data come from a qualitative study of middle-income parents in Canada and the USA. The results provide some support for each of these perspectives, while also revealing how they jointly help explain parents’ large investment in their children as well as the tensions and contradictions that come with it.

scholarly journals Planning a family in Nairobi’s informal settlements: results of a qualitative study

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 286-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catriona A. Towriss ◽  
Donatien Beguy ◽  
Alison Wringe ◽  
Barwako Hassan Hussein ◽  
Ian M. Timæus
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Family Size ◽  
Reproductive Age ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Childbearing Intentions

AbstractChildbearing intentions among women in high-fertility contexts are usually classified into those wanting to have a baby, those wanting to ‘space’ a birth and those wanting to ‘limit’ their family size. However, evidence from Africa increasingly suggests that women’s intentions are more complex than this classification suggests, and that there is fluidity in these intentions. This research explores women’s accounts of their childbearing intentions and decisions in order to examine how this fluidity plays out in a low-fertility context in urban Africa. Six focus group discussions were conducted in April and May 2012 with women of reproductive age in Nairobi, Kenya. Participants were recruited using random and purposive sampling techniques. The focus group discussions had an average of seven participants each. Data were coded thematically and analysed using Nvivo software. The analysis explored the factors that women consider to be influential for childbearing and found that the health of the mother and child, costs of raising a child and relationships were commonly reported to be important. Evidence of intentions to space births and limit family size was found. However, the data also showed that there is fluidity in women’s family planning intentions, driven by changes in relationships or household finances, which often result in a desire to avoid pregnancy in the present moment. The fluidity observed in women’s childbearing intentions cannot be accounted for by the concepts of either ‘spacing’ or ‘limitation’ but is best explained by the concept of ‘postponement’. The research reveals the need for family planning clinics to provide a full method mix, as well as high-quality counselling, to enable women to choose a method that best suits their needs.

scholarly journals Low fertility, childlessness and family changes in the first half of the 20th century in France and Belgium

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Brée ◽  
Thierry Eggerickx ◽  
Jean-Paul Sanderson
Keyword(s):  
Marital Status ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Family Size ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
Family Formation ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Replacement Level ◽  
Low Levels

RésuméAu cours de l’entre-deux-guerres, la fécondité a chuté à des niveaux très faibles dans de nombreux pays d’Europe occidentale, presque toujours en dessous du niveau de remplacement. Ce phénomène reste pourtant assez peu étudié et c’est pour apporter de nouveaux éléments à sa compréhension que cet article se penche sur la taille de la famille en France et en Belgique pour les générations de femmes nées entre 1872 et 1931 (en distinguant les femmes en fonction de leur état civil), révélant le rôle important de l’infécondité et des petites familles dans les très faibles niveaux de fécondité observés. Un accent particulier est également mis sur le calendrier de la formation de la famille révélant que les très faibles niveaux de fécondité de l’entre-deux-guerres peuvent être expliqués, au moins en partie, par une modification du calendrier de la fécondité.AbstractDuring the interwar period, fertility dropped to very low levels in many western European countries, almost always below the replacement level but not much is known about this phenomenon. To bring new features, this paper focuses on family size in France and in Belgium for cohorts of women born between 1872 and 1931 (distinguishing women according to their marital status), revealing the important role of childlessness and small families in the strong decline in fertility. A particular focus is then placed on the timing of family formation revealing that the very low levels of fertility of the interwar period can be explained, at least in part, by a modification of the timing of fertility. 

Family size and social class in nineteenth century Tasmania, Australia

1984 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kosten ◽  
R. J. Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Family Size ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Reproductive Period ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Migrant Families ◽  
Vital Records ◽  
Birth Records

SummaryData on fertility in a white Australian population based upon the vital records of the nineteenth century for two districts in Tasmania are presented. Mean family size was apparently low (3·2) and reproductive period short. However, when allowance was made for the truncation of birth records of migrant families, family size increased (4·9) markedly. Social class is shown to have a consistent effect on fertility levels in the larger community with low fertility associated with inferior economic status. Owing to the paucity of information contained within the vital records, it was impossible to investigate either age structure or migration effects on fertility. There is also evidence to suggest inbreeding is associated with higher, not lower, fertility.

FAMILY SIZE AND CHILDREN’S EDUCATION IN MATLAB, BANGLADESH

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
ABDUR RAZZAQUE ◽  
PETER KIM STREATFIELD ◽  
ANN EVANS
Keyword(s):  
Family Size ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Children's Education ◽  
Head Of Household ◽  
The Family ◽  
Class 1 ◽  
Children’S Education ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

Summary.This study examines the relationship between family size and children’s education in Bangladesh for two periods – 1982 with high fertility and 1996 with low fertility – using data from the Matlab Health and Demographic Surveillance System of the ICDDR,B: Centre for Health and Population Research. Children aged 8–17 years (27,448 in 1982 and 32,635 in 1996) were selected from households where the mother was aged 30–49 years and the father was the head of household. Children’s education was measured in terms of completed years of schooling: at least class 1 (among 8–17 year olds), at least class 5 (among 12–17 year olds) and at least class 7 (among 15–17 year olds). After controlling for all variables in the multivariate analyses, level of children’s education was not found to be associated with family size during the high fertility period. The family size–education relationship became negative during the low fertility period. In both periods children of educated mothers from wealthier households and those who lived close to primary/high schools had more education, but this socioeconomic difference reduced substantially over time. Boys had more education than girls during the high fertility period but this difference disappeared during the low fertility period. As birth rates fall and the proportion of children from small families increases an increase in children’s education is to be expected.

scholarly journals The Demand for Fertility Control in Pakistan

1993 ◽  
Vol 32 (4II) ◽  
pp. 1097-1106
Author(s):  
Naushin Mahmood ◽  
G. M. Zahm
Keyword(s):  
Family Size ◽  
Population Policy ◽  
Large Family ◽  
Fertility Control ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Fertility Desires ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
Family Limitation ◽  
Substantial Decline

The shift from high to low fertility during the process of modernisation may occur through a reduction in the demand for children and an increase in deliberate fertility control behaviour of individuals. This, in tum, depends on couple's positive attitudes and willingness to adopt contraception and the easy availability and accessibility of the means of fertility regulation. In social settings like Pakistan where the desire for large family size exists and deliberate family limitation is not very common, it is of great importance to study the process of making family size choices and assess the demand for fertility control which are very likely to influence the future prospects of fertility change. A recent study in reviewing population policy and family planning programme effectiveness in a number of Third World countries including Pakistan has stressed on the immediate need to estimate the potential demand for services and the extent of such demand in specific areas and subgroups of population [Freedman (1987»). The findings from WFS data on fertility desires for many developing countries also suggest that if women fully implement their stated desire for children and restrict themselves to wanted births, substantial decline in fertility is likely to occur in a majority of countries and unlikely in only a few [Lightboume (1988»). Such findings are important in the context of Pakistan's fertility situation where a significant number of women want to stop childbearing and speculation about a substantial decline in fertility exists.

Resolving the debate over birth order, family size, and intelligence.

2000 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 599-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Lee Rodgers ◽  
H. Harrington Cleveland ◽  
Edwin van den Oord ◽  
David C. Rowe
Keyword(s):  
Birth Order ◽  
Family Size
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