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Taiwan has registered an extremely low fertility rate during the past decades. Against this demographic trend, this study provides empirical evidence from an age-period-cohort analysis of the chang...

Globally, the number of women living with HIV who desire pregnancy has been increasing and little is known as what motivates them, with test and treat women accessing ART desiring pregnancy will increase. Kakamega County has been leading in the region on women living with HIV accessing antenatal services. Past literature in the subject matter failed to look at socio-cultural and societal factors influencing pregnancy among HIV positive women in Kakamega County, Kenya; a gap that informed this study. A descriptive cross-sectional research design was employed. The target population were women aged 18-49 years receiving their family planning services in sub-county hospitals in Kakamega County. Key informants were made up of health care workers at comprehensive care clinics. Purposive sampling was used to select 4 sub-county hospitals, systematic random sampling to select 319 known HIV positive women and 4 focus group discussions. Questionnaires focused on group discussions and key informant interviews were used to collect data. Data collected were entered into Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25.0. Descriptive results were presented in proportionate tables. The results showed that age, education, employment status and parity influenced the desire for pregnancy among HIV positive women in Kakamega County. Society influenced the number of children a woman should have. The community held a negative perception of childless women, especially HIV positive women; the community members did not attach value and pride over the childless HIV positive women. The socio-cultural and societal demand on HIV positive women influenced pregnancy; however, there decreasing association, which meant that the society was 71% less likely to influence the number of children; the spouse was 63% less likely to influence pregnancy. In conclusion, age, education level, marital status parity and employment status, medical cover influenced pregnancy among the known HIV positive women in Kakamega County. Socio-cultural and societal demands were predictors of pregnancy among known HIV positive women in Kakamega County. The community should treat HIV positive women with respect and dignity, thus permitting them to continue their family legacy and sire children. It recommends that there is a need for the county government, department of health services to provide health education to the community on stigma reduction and discrimination meted on these women and negative perception of childlessness women in the society especially known HIV positive women. Further works on the myths and misconception that barrenness is blamed on women leaving men scot-free for the cloud to be the culprits of childlessness in the family.

Background: Despite the widespread use of assisted reproductive technology (ART), few studies analyse its impact on the total fertility rate (TFR). Furthermore, very little is known about how ART affects fertility at older reproductive ages and contributes to family size. Objective: We aim to quantify the contribution of ART to total and age-specific fertility rates and in relation to the transition to first and subsequent births in Australia. Methods: Using data from a comprehensive clinical registry of ART treatments, age-specific ART and non-ART fertility rates were calculated and used to decompose the change in the TFR between 2010 and 2017 into ART and non-ART components. Results: ART represented an increasing and relevant contribution to the TFR, corresponding to an impact of the order of 4% to 5% per annum, or approximately to 1 in 20 births. Increasing fertility rates at age 33 and above exerted a positive effect on the overall TFR, and they were almost entirely attributable to the increasing use of ART. Women resorted to ART especially to have a first child. Contribution: This is the first study to provide a detailed examination of the contribution of ART to age-specific fertility rates and in relation to parity transition. While most studies focus on the impact of ART on the overall TFR, the importance of ART for the recovery of births at older reproductive ages could be underestimated.

Childless men are reported to have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality. Information on inherited genetic risk for CVD has improved the predictive models. Presuming that childlessness is a proxy of infertility we aimed to investigate if childless men inherit more often genetic traits for CVD and if combining genetic and parenthood information improves predictive models for CVD morbidity and mortality. Data was sourced from a large prospective population-based cohort where genetic risk score (GRS) was calculated using two sets of either 27 (GRS 27) or 50 (GRS 50) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously found to be associated with CVD. Part of the participants (n = 2572 men) were randomly assigned to a sub-cohort with focus on CVD which served as an exploratory cohort. The obtained statistically significant results were tested in the remaining (confirmatory) part of the cohort (n = 9548 men). GRS distribution did not differ between childless men and fathers (p-values for interaction between 0.29 and 0.76). However, when using fathers with low GRS as reference high GRS was a strong predictor for CVD mortality, the HR (95% CI) increasing from 1.92 (1.10–3.36) for GRS 50 and 1.54 (0.87–2.75) for GRS 27 in fathers to 3.12 (1.39–7.04) for GRS50 and 3.73 (1.75–7.99) for GRS27 in childless men. The confirmatory analysis showed similar trend. Algorithms including paternal information and GRS were more predictive for CVD mortality at 5 and 10 years follow-ups when compared to algorithms including GRS only (AUC 0.88 (95% CI 0.84–0.92) and 0.86 (95% CI 0.84–0.90), and, AUC 0.81 (95% CI 0.75–0.87) and 0.78 (95% CI 0.73–0.82), respectively). Combining information on parental status and GRS for CVD may improve the predictive power of risk algorithms in middle-aged men. Childless men and those with severe infertility problem may be an important target group for prevention of CVD.

Little is known about whether and how trends in completed cohort fertility and lifetime childlessness by education have changed over time. This study uses census data to describe the changes in completed family size and proportions ultimately childless by educational attainment of Australian women born between 1952–1971 (N = 2,518,571). In all cohorts, better-educated women have lower fertility levels than their lesser-educated counterparts. The decline in completed fertility has, however, slowed among recent cohorts of women with university degrees, while it has been declining at a faster pace among women with Year 12 and Diploma qualifications. The positive effect of education on childlessness has also reduced. The gap in ultimate childlessness between women with university degrees and women with Year 12 qualifications or below has been markedly narrowing across the cohorts under observation, while the increasing trend in childlessness has recently reversed among women with university degrees. There was an overall difference of 12 percentage points between the proportion of higher educated women childless across fields of study, with the highest values occurring for women educated in the arts, agriculture, information technology and social sciences and the lowest values occurring for women educated in health and education. Despite such differences, women educated in all fields of study, apart from engineering, contributed to the recent decline in the proportion childless. The relationship between motherhood and marriage has remained stronger among better-educated women, while it weakened for lesser-educated groups.

Childbearing delay is a pervasive feature of Australian society, but little research has been conducted to examine how socio-economic factors are linked to childbearing timing among Australian men and women. This paper addresses this by analysing the timing of first childbirth for a large sample of Australian residents (N = 4,444). The findings indicate that childbearing delay is socially patterned and that life course experiences shape the risk of delaying childbearing across genders. Having a tertiary qualification delays the transition to parenthood, especially for women. An uninterrupted career prolongs time to parenthood for women but accelerates it for men. Low occupational prestige, being married and having been in only one co-residential union are associated with earlier parenthood for both men and women. For each increase in education level, not being married is associated with increasing levels of childlessness. Clear-cut gender differences are found in the relationship between childlessness and childbearing delay.

Based on census data from 1980 and 2010 the paper examines trends in childlessness in the region. Results show the coexistence of two opposite trends: a decrease in nulliparity in countries that had low fertility levels in the 1980s and an increase in those with high fertility levels. This paper aims to advance in the interpretation of these counter- intuitive results, given that we expected an increase of childlessness in those countries with low or very low fertility in the 2000s. The trend reflects a cyclical behavior that replicates the European experience decades ago.

Informed by the life course perspective, this paper investigates whether and how employment and family trajectories are jointly associated with subjective, relational and financial wellbeing later in life. We draw on data from the Swiss Household Panel which combines biographical retrospective information on work, partnership and childbearing trajectories with 19 annual waves containing a number of wellbeing indicators as well as detailed socio-demographic and social origin information. We use sequence analysis to identify the main family and work trajectories for men and women aged 20–50 years old. We use OLS regression models to assess the association between those trajectories and their interdependency with wellbeing. Results reveal a joint association between work and family trajectories and wellbeing at older age, even net of social origin and pre-trajectory resources. For women, but not for men, the association is also not fully explained by proximate (current family and work status) determinants of wellbeing. Women’s stable full-time employment combined with traditional family trajectories yields a subjective wellbeing premium, whereas childlessness and absence of a stable partnership over the life course is associated with lower levels of financial and subjective wellbeing after 50 especially in combination with a trajectory of weak labour market involvement. Relational wellbeing is not associated with employment trajectories, and only weakly linked to family trajectories among men.

Background: Family in China has experienced drastic changes in the past decades. Yet we have limited knowledge of the trends and patterns of the Chinese family in transition. Objective: This study provides a systematic documentation of the Chinese family in transition by estimating a variety of indicators of marital and fertility behaviors in China, including the singlehood rate, first marriage age, cohabitation rate, divorce rate, and nonmarital childbirth rate. Methods: We analyze data from the 1990, 2000, and 2010 China Censuses, the 2005 1% China Population Inter-Census Surveys, and the 2010‒2016 China Family Panel Studies. Results: The results indicate trends of delays in first marriage age and increases in premarital cohabitation in China. Despite below-replacement fertility, childlessness remains rare among married Chinese couples. In addition, almost all children are born and raised within marriage, with a virtual absence of nonmarital childbearing in China. Although we observe a slight increase in divorce across cohorts, the divorce rate within 10 years in China was much lower than in other East Asian societies. Conclusions: Our research suggests both continuity and changes in marital and childbearing behaviors in China. The trajectory of family changes in China has not followed those in Western countries. Contribution: This article documents the most recent Chinese family changes and provides national estimates of family behaviors in China.

The childless rate in China is predicted to rise significantly in the years to come because of the legacy of one-child policy (1979–2015), continuing socioeconomic development, and the delay and decline of marriage. Although previous studies showed that adult children are the primary source of old-age support in China, much less is known about the availability and sources of social support among childless elders. Based on the hierarchical compensatory substitution model, this study examined living arrangement, size of support networks, and primary sources of instrumental and emotional support by childless status. We used two waves (2005 and 2011) of data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey to study social support among adults aged 65 and older (N=14,575). A series of multinomial logistic and linear regression models were performed to assess the relationship between childlessness and social support over time. We found that, compared to elders with children, childless elders were more likely to live alone or in an institution at baseline, but the probability of living alone decreased significantly while that of living in an institution increased in the follow-up. The size of support networks remained smaller among childless elders over time. Although childless elders were more likely to depend on their spouse, grandchildren and other relatives, nonrelatives, or nobody for support at baseline, this pattern disappeared in the follow-up likely because of sample selection. Overall, childless elders have fewer social resources, but some disadvantage diminishes as they age due to institutionalization or mortality selection.

The global trend of declining fertility rates and an increasingly ageing population has led to increased scrutiny of parenthood. Although there are more childless men than childless women, there is...

Increases in the average age at first birth and in the proportion of women remaining childless have extended the total number of years that women spend childless during their reproductive lifetime in several countries. To quantify the number of years that reproductive-age women live without children, we introduce the cross-sectional average length of life childless (CALC). This measure includes all the age-specific first-birth information available for the cohorts present at time t; it is a period measure based on cohort data. Using the Human Fertility Database, CALC is calculated for the year 2015 for all countries with long enough histories of fertility available. Results show that women in the majority of the studied countries spend, on average, more than half of their reproductive lives childless. Furthermore, the difference between CALCs in two countries can be decomposed to give a clear visualization of how each cohort contributes to the difference in the duration of the length of childless life in those populations. Our illustration of the decomposition shows that (1) in recent years, female cohorts in Japan and Spain at increasingly younger ages have been contributing to more years of childless life compared with those in Sweden, (2) the United States continues to represent an exception among the high-income countries with a low expectation for childless life of women, and (3) Hungary experienced a strong period effect of the recent Great Recession. These examples show that CALC and its decomposition can provide insights into first-birth patterns. The contribution of Jessica Nisén was supported by the Academy of Finland (decision numbers 332863 and 320162). We are grateful to Marilia Nepomuceno for her initial contribution.

Purpose To identify risk factors for severe psychological stress in women undergoing fertility treatment. Methods This cross-sectional, multi-center study was conducted from August to December 2018. We recruited 1672 subjects who completed an anonymous, self-reported questionnaire regarding fertility treatment, conditions at work and home, and psychological stress using K6 score, which estimates psychological distress during the previous 30 days. We further focused our analysis on 1335 subjects who were working when starting fertility treatment. Results Of 1672 women, mean K6 score (range 0–24) was 4.8 ± 4.4, including 103 women (6.2%) with K6 score ≥ 13 (high K6), and classified as probable severe psychological distress. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that high K6 was strongly associated with low annual family income of ≤ USD55,700 (JPY6 million) (odds ratio [OR] 1.89, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04−3.42), infertility duration of ≥ 2 years (OR 1.87, 95% CI 1.08−3.25), and no experience of childbirth (OR 2.04, 95% CI 1.05−3.97). Focusing on 1335 working women, 266 (19.9%) experienced resignation from work. High K6 was strongly associated with low family income (OR 2.83, 95% CI 1.52−5.28), cessation of professional duties (OR 2.08, 95% CI 1.05–4.14), infertility-related harassment in the workplace (OR 2.07, 95% CI 1.08−3.98), and perceived difficulties to continue working during fertility treatment (OR 2.94, 95% CI 1.15−7.50). Conclusion Severe psychological stressors in women during fertility treatment included low family income, long infertility duration, childlessness, infertility-related harassment, and perceived difficulty in working conditions or cessation from work. Establishment of mental health care support systems is urgently required in this population.

The social, economic, and cultural changes that have taken place in Europe in the past few decades in the field of fertility have been accompanied by an increase in permanent childlessness. The childlessness level among women born in 1968 is 12% in Serbia, slightly below the European average (14%). The aim of this paper is to explore in more detail the level of childlessness in Serbia and the characteristics of women aged 15-49 without live births. Changes in childlessness over a 60-year period (1961-2020) by five-year age groups were analysed. The basic characteristics of childless women of reproductive age by education, marital status, and age were observed from 1991 to 2011. The paper is based on census and vital statistics data. The authors introduce two new indicators of childlessness: the general childlessness rate (GChR) as the share of women without live births in the total female population aged 15-49, and the age-specific childlessness rate (ASChR) as the percentage of childless women by age. Changes in cumulative fertility rates by age were less influenced by the reproductive behaviour of mothers and much more by an increase in the proportion of childless women. The general childlessness rate until 1991 was relatively stable in Serbia. Since then, it has increased intensely (from 30.1% in 1991 to 41.6% in 2011, and 43.4% in 2020). The increase in childlessness is largely a consequence of the postponement of first births, but also of the increase in permanent childlessness among women aged 45-49. The postponement of first births has occured in all age groups and the ASChR has increased across the board. In Serbia, in 2020, the ASChR reached record values for all five-year age groups (36.5% for women aged 30-34, 21.4% for ages 35-39), as did the level of permanent childlessness (13.8% for ages 45-49). The paper also analyses childlessness by education and marital status. According to census data (1991, 2002, and 2011), the general childlessness rate is lowest among women without any formal education and those who haven’t completed primary school, and highest among women with a primary education. Childlessness rates are particularly high among women in their thirties and forties. The influence of marital status on the level of childlessness was also confirmed. The GChR of single women was at least 10 times higher than the value for ever married women. The GChR ranged from 96% to 89% for single women and invariably slightly above 8% for ever married women. The results of direct standardization showed the greater importance of the changes that occurred between 1991 and 2011 by education and marital status of women aged 15-49 on the childlessness level, as well as their completely opposite effects compared to those caused by the change in the age structure. The large impact of changes in marital structure also indicates the possibility of a certain influence on reducing childlessness in Serbia. As the decreasein marriage is not accompanied by a higher prevalence of stable extramarital unions, it’s possible that the creation of more favourable circumstances for an independent life for young people and for forming a union could contribute to reducing the postponement of childbearing, and thus reducing childlessness during and at the end of the reproductive age. This is especially important considering that family and children are highly valued in Serbia. It should be noted that the high and growing shares of women without children in the 30-34 and 35-39 age groups limit the possibilities of reducing permanent childlessness, particularly in the near future.

Background: The long-term decline in cohort fertility in highly developed countries has been widely documented. However, no systematic analysis has investigated which parity contributed most to the fertility decline to low and very low levels. Objective: We examine how the contribution of changing parity progression ratios varied across cohorts, countries, and broader regions in Europe, North America, Australia, and East Asia. We pay special attention to countries that reached very low completed cohort fertility, below 1.75 children per woman. Methods: Using population censuses and large-scale surveys for 32 low fertility countries, we decompose the change in completed cohort fertility among women born between 1940 and 1970. The decomposition method takes into account the sequential nature of childbearing as a chain of transitions from lower to higher parities. Results: Among women born between 1940 and 1955, the fertility decline was mostly driven by reductions in the progression ratios to third and higher-order births. By contrast, among women born between 1955 and 1970, changes in fertility showed distinct regional patterns: in Central and Eastern Europe they were fuelled by falling second-birth rates, whereas in the German-speaking countries, Southern Europe, and East Asia decreases in first-birth rates played the major role. Conclusions: Pathways to low and very low fertility show distinct geographical patterns, which reflect the diversity of the cultural, socioeconomic, and institutional settings of low fertility countries. Contribution: Our study highlights the importance of analysing parity-specific components of fertility in order to understand fertility change and variation. We demonstrate that similar low levels of completed cohort fertility can result from different combinations of parity-specific fertility rates.

Although there are well-established relationships between women’s higher education, labour force participation (LFP), and occupation on the one hand and childlessness on the other hand in the US, the underlying reasons and the role that childlessness desires and expectations play remain unclear. We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth in the United States (N=4,198 women) and apply both logistic regression models to examine the role of childlessness desires early in life, and multilevel models for repeated measures to examine the role of childlessness expectations throughout the life course. We find that higher educational attainment and LFP are positively associated with childlessness. We do not find, however, that higher educated and working women more often desire or expect to remain childless. In contrast, we find that among women who ultimately remain childless, those women who work full-time and have higher status occupations have higher expectations to have children throughout their life course. These results suggest that education and occupation produce constraints, resulting in the postponement of childbearing which hinders women in realizing their desires and expectations. Since many working women remain childless despite the desire and expectation to become a mother, our findings stress the importance of work-life reconciliation. It furthermore highlights the importance of increasing public awareness regarding the decrease in fecundity with age.

While research in the 1970s described intense stigmatisation of voluntarily childless people, it has changed slightly since then. For instance, a quantitative study of university students’ perceptions of parents and childless couples showed persistent negative stereotypes of the childless along with negative perceptions of parenthood when it comes to stress and marital strains (Koropeckyj-Cox et al., 2018). Nonetheless, following the pronatalist context described in chapter 3, normative heter...

In approaching ‘environmental childlessness’, I realised that both environmental issues and reproduction encountered ethical dimensions. On the one hand, environmental issues are based on humanity’s place in the world and question fundamental ideas about what it means to be human (Haenn, Harnish, and Wilk, 2016, 1). While most animal species depend on intra-species relationships and the alteration of their environment to survive, how industrial and capitalist societies have rooted their devel...

While there is a recent tendency to account for a dramatic rise in ‘childlessness’, this is far from a new phenomenon. As highlighted by Michaela Kreyenfeld and Dirk Konietzka (2017a, 5), historical demography indicates that in many European regions in the 19th and early 20th centuries, about 20% of women remained childless. However, to relativise the novelty of this demographic trend does not prevent us from recognising a recent increase in childlessness and its expansion to countries that h...

2.1 Data Collection Considering my research object – ‘environmental childlessness’ – the empirical material I was interested in was individual narratives and experiences around questions ranging from parenthood to environmental consciousness. Therefore, semi-structured in-depth interviews were the most appropriate method. I also organised a collective discussion at the end of the interviewing process, at the end of March 2021. Indeed, some people expressed a desire to meet with people with w...

“Mixed-up times are overflowing with both pain and joy – with vastly unjust patterns of pain and joy, with unnecessary killing of ongoingness but also with necessary resurgence. The task is to make kin in lines of inventive connection as a practice of learning to live and die well with each other in a thick present. Our task is to make trouble, to stir up potent response to devastating events, as well as to settle troubled waters and rebuild quiet places. In urgent times, many of us are tempt...

Although voluntary childlessness based on environmental concerns is increasingly in evidence, the relationship between environmental crises and reproductive intentions has not yet significantly entered academic debate. Nonetheless, it articulates concrete ways in which the perception of environmental crises (re)shapes people’s lives in western societies. In an attempt to explore human reproduction as a site of environmental interrogations, this research asks how environmental degradation is (re)shaping reproductive intentions and what the pathway is towards ‘environmental childlessness’. Mobilising different scholarship and ethnographic interviews, I propose that the pathway towards ‘environmental childlessness’ is informed by profound uncertainties about the future, ethical interrogations, and persistent pronatalism. More than an over-simplifying update of neo-Malthusian and apocalyptic thinking, interrogations of parenthood express a broader rejection of current capitalist ways of living. Furthermore, rather than signalling a pessimistic disengagement from the future, ‘environmental childlessness’ appears to be a bid to attain a ‘meaningful’ life. We extend our heartfelt thanks to the Vahabzadeh Foundation for financially supporting the publication of best works by young researchers of the Graduate Institute, giving a priority to those who have been awarded academic prizes for their master’s dissertations.

My interlocutors’ pathways towards ‘environmental childlessness’ are multiple and it would be inappropriate to homogenise their experiences. Some of them never really wanted children, others only thought they would have a biological family until they seriously considered it, and a few of them wished they could have children. Women particularly emphasised that motherhood assigns them to a normative gendered identity and represents a heavy practical workload. Overall, following the greater attr...

The purpose of this study is to describe population-level trends in intentions to remain childless (ITRC) among men and women in the United States in the first decades of the twenty-first century. We use a sample of 31,739 women and 24,524 men aged 18–44 from a cross-sectional and nationally representative survey, the National Survey of Family Growth. Our analyses utilize five of the survey's cycles: from 2002 through 2015–2017. Trends in the unadjusted proportions of men and women who report ITRC are presented, along with predicted probabilities of reporting ITRC from multivariate regressions. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the prevalence of ITRC increased in the general population of men and women in the United States as well as among the youngest adults aged 18–24. If ITRC are realized, permanent childlessness rates could increase in the near future, contributing to the ongoing fertility decline in the United States. Further analyses uncover similarities and differences in the ITRC trends and correlates between men and women. Increases in ITRC among women are connected to changes in the socio-demographic composition of the population but ITRC increases among men are not connected to population composition changes. In addition, a positive education gradient is observed in ITRC among women but not among men. These variations in ITRC prompt a call for further research into gender and intentions for childlessness.

In the developed world, the historic process of fertility decline was interrupted by an unexpected period of increasing fertility called the baby boom. Recent studies suggest that a similar trend change in fertility may have occurred in many less developed nations at approximately the same time. Using cohort fertility data for 26 less developed countries from around the world taken from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, International (IPUMS-I), this paper aims to ascertain the extent to which these trend changes occurred in a large sample of countries around the world. It offers convincing proof of the existence of an upward shift in fertility among cohorts born during the 1930s, which was common to many countries in the less developed world. Despite many similarities with the baby boom, there are also differences stemming, mostly, from its timing with respect to the demographic transition.

Childlessness has been increasing over the last decades in most European societies. Previous studies have mostly focused on the ‘involuntary’ component of childlessness, and factors affecting voluntary childlessness remained poorly understood. This article presents an analysis of the factors associated with the intention to be childless, and the realisation and stability of this intention in the short-term. The theory of planned behaviour is applied to relate childlessness intentions with their realisation and to explore the role of ideational factors on the variability of possible fertility outcomes. Results show that more than 90% of the respondents realised their desire to remain childless. Childlessness intentions, however, tend to be less stable than parenthood ones, at all ages with the exception of individuals aged 40 years or more. Individuals’ attitudes towards childbearing and perceived social pressure toward parenthood strongly correlate with the stability of the intentions toward childlessness or parenthood, whereas socio-economic characteristics and factors connected with individuals’ perceived control count for little. The study sheds light on people who voluntarily live without children and suggests that being childless is not always the result of opportunities and external constraints, but it could be a choice originating from personal and intimate domains of life.

Background While most known causes of infertility relate to the health of the woman and/or her partner, questions have been raised regarding the possible contributions of transgenerational or epigenetic factors. Objective The goal of this hypothesis-generating work was to examine whether Generation 1's (G1's) age at the delivery of G2 (Generation 2) was associated with G2's fertility in later life. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study of women (G2s) recruited online in 2016. A questionnaire queried G2s regarding demographics and fertility. The primary exposure was G1's age at G2's birth. Outcome measures included the following: 12-month infertility, time to pregnancy, and childlessness. The adjusted relative risk (RR) of G2 infertility and childlessness by G1 age at G2's birth was estimated through a modified Poisson regression approach. The fecundity odds ratio (FOR) for the association between G1's age at G2 birth and time to pregnancy for G2 was estimated by discrete-time survival models, with complementary log-log link. Results A total of 2,854 women enrolled. We found no association between G1 age at G2's birth and G2 infertility. Being born to a G1 aged 15-19 years was associated with a longer time to pregnancy for G2 (FOR 0.84, 95% confidence interval 0.72, 0.99), relative to being born to a G1 aged 20-24 years. We observed the suggestion of a possible increased risk of childlessness among G2s born to older G1s, but the estimate was imprecise. Conclusions While being born to a G1 who was 15-19 years old was associated with an increase in G2 time to pregnancy, we found no association between G1 age at G2's birth and infertility and only the suggestion of a modest association with childlessness. These data suggest a possible subtle effect of G1 age at G2's birth on G2 fertility, which warrants further study.

OBJECTIVE This descriptive study aims to analyse the association between childlessness and voting turnout. METHODS We used the first nine rounds of the European Social Survey and logistic regression models to estimate the association between childlessness and having voted in the last national elections using data from 38 countries. RESULTS Our results show that childlessness is negatively associated with voting turnout in general. The association is stronger among individuals who are in the late reproductive lifespan (ages 35 to 39, 40 to 44, and 45 to 49), males, and those with lower education. The analyses show also considerable heterogeneity across countries but without a clear pattern. CONTRIBUTION This descriptive study offers evidence to stimulate more theoretical and empirical research on the relationship between childlessness and voting turnout, which is crucial to better understanding the role of demography in the functioning of democracy. This research has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 681546 (FAMSIZEMATTERS), PI: Christiaan Monden.

ObjectivesThe impact of inflammatory arthritis (IA) on male fertility remains unexplored. Our objective was to evaluate the impact of IA on several male fertility outcomes; fertility rate (number of biological children per man), family planning, childlessness and fertility problems.MethodsWe performed a multicentre cross-sectional study (iFAME-Fertility). Men with IA 40 years or older who indicated that their family size was complete were invited to participate. Participants completed a questionnaire that included demographic, medical and fertility-related questions. To analyse the impact of IA on fertility rate, patients were divided into groups according to the age at the time of their diagnosis: ≤30 years (before the peak of reproductive age), between 31 and 40 years (during the peak) and ≥41 years (after the peak).ResultsIn total 628 participants diagnosed with IA were included. Men diagnosed ≤30 years had a lower mean number of children (1.32 (SD 1.14)) than men diagnosed between 31 and 40 years (1.60 (SD 1.35)) and men diagnosed ≥41 years (1.88 (SD 1.14)).This was statistically significant (p=0.0004).The percentages of men diagnosed ≤30 and 31–40 years who were involuntary childless (12.03% vs 10.34% vs 3.98%, p=0.001) and who reported having received medical evaluations for fertility problems (20.61%, 20.69% and 11.36%, p=0.027) were statistically significant higher than men diagnosed ≥41 years.ConclusionsThis is the first study that shows that IA can impair male fertility. Men diagnosed with IA before and during the peak of reproductive age had a lower fertility rate, higher childlessness rate and more fertility problems. Increased awareness and more research into the causes behind this association are urgently needed.

Background: Postponement of first births and an increase in childlessness are significant trends across European countries. While educational differentials for motherhood are well documented, this is less true for fatherhood. Objective: To compare late first birth and childlessness trends in men and women, across cohorts and by education. Methods: The analysis relies on French administrative data from the 2016 Permanent Demographic Sample (EDP). Ages at first birth and shares of childlessness are computed by educational levels and between cohorts from 1950 to 1970. Results: Across cohorts, higher-educated women tend to “catch up” after delaying first births, while lower-educated women more often remain childless. For men, there is a slight catch-up among the higher-educated group, especially in the most recent cohorts, but not enough yet to offset the increase in childlessness. Childlessness also remains particularly high among the lower-educated group of men. Conclusions: Catching up after a delayed first birth is more frequent among men and especially women with more economic and social resources. While women are more biologically age-constrained than men are, social barriers may also prevent individuals from entering motherhood and fatherhood at late reproductive ages. Contribution: The contribution of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it considers first births at late ages as an indicator of catching up following postponement of transition to parenthood. Secondly, the comparison of educational differences in men and women at late reproductive ages informs the discussion on gendered and social constraints on parenthood.

Objectives This study describes living arrangement-specific life expectancy for older Americans with and without children, by sex and race/ethnicity. Method We use life tables from the Human Mortality Database and data from the Health and Retirement Study over a 17-year period (2000–2016) to calculate living arrangement-specific life expectancy at age 65 using Sullivan’s method. Results describe the lives of older Americans aged 65 and older with and without children in terms of the number of expected years of life in different living arrangements. Results With the exception of Hispanic men, older Americans without children spend over half of their remaining life living alone. Among the childless, it is White women and Black men who spend the largest percent of remaining life living alone (65% and 57%, respectively). Relative to parents, childless older Americans have an overall life expectancy at age 65 that is 1 year lower and spend 5–6 years more living alone and fewer years living with a spouse (8 years less for men and 5 years less for women). Childless older Americans spend more time in nursing homes, but average expected duration in this living arrangement is short and differences between those with and without children are small. Discussion This descriptive analysis demonstrates the fundamental ways in which children shape the lives of older Americans by showing that later-life living arrangements of childless Americans differ markedly from their counterparts with children. These results provide a valuable empirical foundation for broader efforts to understand relationships between childlessness, living arrangements, and well-being at older ages.

In Norway, as in many other rich countries, childlessness is more common among men than women and has also increased more among men. Over the last 15 years, the gap in childlessness between 45-year-old women and men has widened from 5.8 to 10.2 percentage points, according to national register data. In the Norwegian-born subgroup, the gap has increased by 2.4 percentage points, from 5.8 to 8.2. The goal of the study was to identify the demographic drivers of this development, using a quite simple, but original, decomposition approach. The components reflect changes in relative cohort sizes, whether the child has one native and one immigrant parent, whether the father was older than 45, and whether one of the parents already had a child, no longer lived in Norway at age 45, or was unidentified. It was found that the modestly increasing sex gap in childlessness among the Norwegian-born is largely linked to changes in cohort sizes, i.e. fertility trends. Changes in re-partnership have actually contributed weakly in the opposite direction: It has become more common especially among men to have the first child with a partner who already had a child, and thus not contribute to bringing also that person out of childlessness. The importance of the various components is different for immigrants, among whom the sex gap in childlessness has increased particularly much. This development may also reflect that especially male immigrants perhaps have children in the home country who are not included in the Norwegian register. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10680-021-09590-4.

Fertility treatment discontinuation is difficult as it entails accepting childlessness. In most countries, financial limitations provide sufficient justification to terminate treatment. In Israel, unlimited funding enables women to undergo multiple treatment cycles, even when the odds of success are poor, thus providing a context for studying the psychological mechanisms involved when financial constraints are set aside. The study aimed to investigate the contribution of unrealistic optimism to Israeli women’s willingness to continue fertility treatments even after repeated failures and to their psychological adjustment, comparing age groups. A longitudinal study of 100 women (ages 31–45) undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment (1–22 previous cycles), who filled in questionnaires assessing their estimates of treatment success (theirs/for same-age patient), estimates received from the physician, intentions to continue treatment, and psychological adjustment. Follow-up was conducted 17(± 4) months later, by phone (n = 71) and/or medical records (n = 90). Most women (57%) reported that they will continue as long as needed till they have a child, 13% did not know, and 25% mentioned a specific plan; 5 did not reply. Women’s estimates of treatment success showed vast unrealistic optimism, which was unrelated to their age, history of unsuccessful treatment cycles, or intentions for treatment continuation, yet was related to better psychological adjustment. At follow-up, almost all women who did not conceive were found to have continued treatments. Unrealistic optimism helps women maintain hope and well-being along the demanding journey to (biological) parenthood, where childlessness is highly stigmatized, and contributes to perseverance in treatment, regardless of objective factors.

How has the demography of grandparenthood changed over the last century? How have racial inequalities in grandparenthood changed, and how are they expected to change in the future? Massive improvements in mortality, increasing childlessness, and fertility postponement have profoundly altered the likelihood that people become grandparents as well as the timing and length of grandparenthood for those that do. The demography of grandparenthood is important to understand for those taking a multigenerational perspective of stratification and racial inequality because these processes define the onset and duration of intergenerational relationships in ways that constrain the forms and levels of intergenerational transfers that can occur within them. In this article, we discuss four measures of the demography of grandparenthood and use simulated data to estimate the broad contours of historical changes in the demography of grandparenthood in the United States for the 1880–1960 birth cohorts. Then we examine race and sex differences in grandparenthood in the past and present, which reveal declining inequality in the demography of grandparenthood and a projection of increasing group convergence in the coming decades. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s13524-019-00795-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.