IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/isd/wpaper/58.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Diverse Paths into Childlessness over the Life Course

Author

Listed:
  • Monika Mynarska

    (Cardinal Stefan Wyszyñski University in Warsaw, Institute of Psychology)

  • Anna Matysiak

    (Institute of Statistics and Demography, Warsaw School of Economics)

  • Anna Rybiñska

    (Institute of Statistics and Demography, Warsaw School of Economics)

  • Valentina Tocchioni

    (University of Florence, Department of Statistics “G. Parenti”)

  • Daniele Vignoli

    (University of Florence, Department of Statistics “G. Parenti”)

Abstract

Childlessness is rarely an outcome of a single decision or can be attributed to one particular reason. Remaining childless should rather be seen as a process influenced by continuously changing context and by many choices that individual makes in various life spheres over the life course. Previous studies focused on the effect of accumulated experience of life events on a probability to have no children. Such an approach does not allow for capturing a whole variety of different roads to childlessness that are postulated in the literature. Our paper aims at filling this gap by applying an exploratory approach of sequence analysis. We employ it on Polish and Italian data to reconstruct the major life course trajectories of childless women and to reveal the complexity of life paths leading to childlessness.

Suggested Citation

  • Monika Mynarska & Anna Matysiak & Anna Rybiñska & Valentina Tocchioni & Daniele Vignoli, 2013. "Diverse Paths into Childlessness over the Life Course," Working Papers 58, Institute of Statistics and Demography, Warsaw School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:isd:wpaper:58
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://kolegia.sgh.waw.pl/pl/KAE/struktura/ISiD/publikacje/Documents/Working_Paper/ISID_WP_34_2013.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maria Iacovou & Lara Patrício Tavares, 2011. "Yearning, Learning, and Conceding: Reasons Men and Women Change Their Childbearing Intentions," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 37(1), pages 89-123, March.
    2. Irena Kotowska & Janina Jóźwiak & Anna Matysiak & Anna Baranowska-Rataj, 2008. "Poland: Fertility decline as a response to profound societal and labour market changes?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 19(22), pages 795-854.
    3. Cordula Zabel, 2006. "Employment experience and first birth in Great Britain," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2006-029, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    4. Arnstein Aassve & Francesco C. Billari & Raffaella Piccarreta, 2007. "Strings of Adulthood: A Sequence Analysis of Young British Women’s Work-Family Trajectories," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 23(3), pages 369-388, October.
    5. Pau Baizan & Francesca Michielin & Francesco Billari, 2002. "Political Economy and Life Course Patterns," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 6(8), pages 191-240.
    6. Alessandra De Rose & Filomena Racioppi & Anna Laura Zanatta, 2008. "Italy: Delayed adaptation of social institutions to changes in family behaviour," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 19(19), pages 665-704.
    7. Jan M. Hoem & Giuseppe Gabrielli & Aiva Jasilioniene & Dora Kostova & Anna Matysiak, 2010. "Levels of recent union formation," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 22(9), pages 199-210.
    8. Maria Letizia Tanturri & Letizia Mencarini, 2008. "Childless or Childfree? Paths to Voluntary Childlessness in Italy," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 34(1), pages 51-77, March.
    9. Gordon A. Carmichael & Andrea Whittaker, 2007. "Choice and circumstance: Qualitative insights into contemporary childlessness in Australia," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 23(2), pages 111-143, June.
    10. Daniele Vignoli & Sven Drefahl & Gustavo De Santis, 2012. "Whose job instability affects the likelihood of becoming a parent in Italy? A tale of two partners," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 26(2), pages 41-62.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Valentina Tocchioni & Anna Rybińska & Monika Mynarska & Anna Matysiak & Daniele Vignoli, 2021. "Life-course trajectories of childless women: Country-specific or universal?," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2021_01, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".
    2. Natalie Nitsche & Sarah R. Hayford, 2020. "Preferences, Partners, and Parenthood: Linking Early Fertility Desires, Marriage Timing, and Achieved Fertility," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(6), pages 1975-2001, December.
    3. Elena Bastianelli & Daniele Vignoli, 2021. "Instability of Employment Careers and Union Dissolution. A Complex Micro-level Relation," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2021_04, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".
    4. Petra Buhr & Johannes Huinink, 2017. "Why Childless Men and Women Give Up on Having Children," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 33(4), pages 585-606, October.
    5. Anna Rybiñska, 2014. "Motherhood after the age of 35 in Poland," Working Papers 65, Institute of Statistics and Demography, Warsaw School of Economics.
    6. Chiara Comolli & Fabrizio Bernardi, 2015. "The causal effect of the great recession on childlessness of white American women," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-24, December.
    7. Valentina Tocchioni, 2016. "Exploring the childless universe: profiles and fertility intentions of men and women without children in Italy," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2016_09, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".
    8. Daniele Vignoli & Raffaele Guetto & Giacomo Bazzani & Elena Pirani & Alessandra Minello, 2020. "Economic Uncertainty and Fertility in Europe: Narratives of the Future," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2020_01, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".
    9. Rannveig Kaldager Hart, 2019. "Union Histories of Dissolution: What Can They Say About Childlessness?," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(1), pages 101-131, February.
    10. Natalie Nitsche & Sarah Hayford, 2018. "Preferences, Partners, and Parenthood: Linking Early Fertility Desires, Union Formation Timing, and Achieved Fertility," VID Working Papers 1810, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.
    11. Alison Gemmill, 2019. "From Some to None? Fertility Expectation Dynamics of Permanently Childless Women," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(1), pages 129-149, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Valentina Tocchioni, 2016. "Exploring the childless universe: profiles and fertility intentions of men and women without children in Italy," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2016_09, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".
    2. Francesca Fiori & Francesca Rinesi & Elspeth Graham, 2017. "Choosing to Remain Childless? A Comparative Study of Fertility Intentions Among Women and Men in Italy and Britain," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 33(3), pages 319-350, July.
    3. Alison Gemmill, 2019. "From Some to None? Fertility Expectation Dynamics of Permanently Childless Women," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(1), pages 129-149, February.
    4. Valentina Tocchioni & Anna Rybińska & Monika Mynarska & Anna Matysiak & Daniele Vignoli, 2022. "Life-Course Trajectories of Childless Women: Country-Specific or Universal?," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(5), pages 1315-1332, December.
    5. Anna Matysiak & Daniele Vignoli, 2009. "Finding the "right moment" for the first baby to come: a comparison between Italy and Poland," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2009-011, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    6. Petra Buhr & Johannes Huinink, 2017. "Why Childless Men and Women Give Up on Having Children," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 33(4), pages 585-606, October.
    7. Tomas Frejka, 2008. "Overview Chapter 5: Determinants of family formation and childbearing during the societal transition in Central and Eastern Europe," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 19(7), pages 139-170.
    8. Tomáš Sobotka, 2008. "Overview Chapter 6: The diverse faces of the Second Demographic Transition in Europe," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 19(8), pages 171-224.
    9. Gerda Neyer & Trude Lappegård & Daniele Vignoli, 2013. "Gender Equality and Fertility: Which Equality Matters?," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(3), pages 245-272, August.
    10. Anna Matysiak & Daniele Vignoli, 2013. "Diverse Effects of Women’s Employment on Fertility: Insights From Italy and Poland," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(3), pages 273-302, August.
    11. Daniela Bellani & Bruno Arpino & Daniele Vignoli, 2020. "In medio stat filius. The relationship between time preferences and fertility," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2020_02, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".
    12. Francesca Fiori & Francesca Rinesi & Antonella Pinnelli & Sabrina Prati, 2013. "Economic Insecurity and the Fertility Intentions of Italian Women with One Child," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 32(3), pages 373-413, June.
    13. Busygin V.P. & Kulakov D.A., 2016. "Comparative efficiency of child benefits in different European countries," World of economics and management / Vestnik NSU. Series: Social and Economics Sciences, Socionet, vol. 16(3), pages 42-56.
    14. Ann Berrington & Juliet Stone & Eva Beaujouan, 2015. "Educational differences in timing and quantum of childbearing in Britain," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 33(26), pages 733-764.
    15. Giulia Ferrari & Alessandro Rosina & Emiliano Sironi, 2014. "Beyond Good Intentions: The Decision-Making Process of Leaving the Family of Origin in Italy," Working Papers 060, "Carlo F. Dondena" Centre for Research on Social Dynamics (DONDENA), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi.
    16. Marcantonio Caltabiano & Chiara Ludovica Comolli & Alessandro Rosina, 2017. "The effect of the Great Recession on permanent childlessness in Italy," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 37(20), pages 635-668.
    17. Marcantonio Caltabiano, 2016. "A turning point in Italian fertility," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 379-397, December.
    18. Valentina Tocchioni, 2018. "Exploring the childless universe: Profiles of women and men without children in Italy," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 38(19), pages 451-470.
    19. Valentina Tocchioni & Anna Rybińska & Monika Mynarska & Anna Matysiak & Daniele Vignoli, 2021. "Life-course trajectories of childless women: Country-specific or universal?," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2021_01, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".
    20. Anna Matysiak & Daniele Vignoli, 2011. "Different women’s employment and fertility behaviours in similar institutional settings: Evidence from Italy and Poland," Working Papers 41, Institute of Statistics and Demography, Warsaw School of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    childlessness; life-course; sequence analysis; Italy; Poland;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:isd:wpaper:58. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Milena Borkowska (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/issghpl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.