The decision of whether to have a child: Does couple disagreement matter?

Arbeitspapier

Most of the international studies on fertility are based on a female perspective. A major difficulty in couple-level research is the need for high-quality data that includes information on both partners. Using couple data from a longitudinal study conducted in Italy [2003-2007], a country with persistently low fertility levels, we examined the effect of disagreement within a couple about childbearing behaviour. The starting point was the hypothesis advanced in an earlier study that Italian women prevail in reproductive decision-making, because childbearing lies mainly in their sphere of influence. The data revealed that the decision rules are parityspecific. At parities zero and one, the disagreement produced an intermediate childbearing outcome irrespective of which partner wanted a(nother) child; while at higher parities, an asymmetrical veto power model in which the female partner had greater influence was observed. The findings suggest that the predictive power of short-term fertility intentions strongly improves if both partners' views are considered in fertility models, and thus support the adoption of couple analysis in fertility research.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Vienna Institute of Demography Working Papers ; No. 7/2012

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie, Anthropologie
• Subject: Fertility decision-making ; reproductive behaviour ; couple disagreement ; childbearing intentions ; child-timing intentions ; partner context ; Frauen ; Fertilität ; Familienplanung ; Ehe ; Italien

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Testa, Maria Rita ; Cavalli, Laura ; Rosina, Alessandro
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), Vienna Institute of Demography (VID)
• (where): Vienna
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/96990
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET