Publication
Title
Educational differentials in fertility intensions and outcomes : family formation in Flanders in the early 1990s
Author
Abstract
Over the last decades the majority of European countries have witnessed fertility levels considerably below replacement. Particularly completed cohort fertility below two children per woman has raised concerns whether this trend corresponds to a decline of fertility intentions or represents a discrepancy between intended and realised fertility. Using data from the Fertility and Family Survey (FFS) conducted in 1991, we look at fertility intentions of women aged 20-39 in Flanders, documenting how intentions differ in terms of education of women and their partners, activity status and household position. For a larger group of women, we subsequently compare the effects of these characteristics on first-, second- and third-birth hazards in a prospective study based on longitudinal microdata from the 1991 and 2001 Belgian censuses. Our results indicate that lifetime fertility intentions in 1991 were above the replacement level, but also that the proportion of women having a child in the three-year period following the 1991 census is lower than the short-term intentions suggested in the FFS, particularly for first births. We find evidence of a positive educational gradient in both fertility intentions and birth hazards. For the highly educated, higher birth hazards are associated with a stronger attachment to the labour market (both before and after parenthood), homogamy to highly educated partners and more frequent uptake of (in)formal child care.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Vienna yearbook of population research.. - Wien :
Publication
Wien : : Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, , 2011
ISSN
1728-4414
DOI
10.1553/POPULATIONYEARBOOK2011S227
Volume/pages
9 (2011) , p. 227-258
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Socio-economic patterns of fertility & family formation in Europe: How are they related to policies and the economic context?
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
VABB-SHW
Record
Identifier
Creation 27.02.2012
Last edited 07.10.2022
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