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Research report no.11 2004

'It's not for lack of wanting kids...'
A report on the Fertility Decision Making Project

by Ruth Weston, Lixia Qu, Robyn Parker and Michael Alexander

7. Issues influencing fertility decisions

As noted in Chapter 1, fertility behaviour is likely to be an outcome of a wide range of life course, social and psychological forces. The present chapter focuses on the extent to which forces that have been proposed as key explanations for fertility trends, outlined in Chapter 1, are translated into issues that are seen as important by individuals in the process of deciding whether or not to start a family or have another child.

One set of explanations for the fall in fertility concerns the increasing age at which women attempt to start a family, and the consequent abbreviation of their potential child bearing period and heightened risk of childlessness. Such postponement of childbearing results from several other factors including delays in leaving home, forming partnerships and marrying. In addition, partnership rates have declined across all ages. Chapter 1 outlined several interacting forces that have been suggested as major drivers of these trends. The present chapter examines the extent to which such forces are reflected in the conscious considerations that enter into the decisions about having, or not having, children.

Delays in achieving the typical milestones that precede having children have been explained partly in terms of trends in the labour market and the economy. For example, McDonald (2001b) argues that the cycle of economic "booms and busts" and the concomitant rise in job insecurity and uncertainties about housing costs have led young people to prioritise investing in their education and career development and couples to remain dual earners as a hedge against dual unemployment. This focus on promoting employment and/or economic security has also been linked with the direct and indirect financial costs of raising children. Consistent with these explanations, Chapters 4 and 6 showed that some of the respondents in the present study referred to job insecurity, emphasis on career development, and/or financial costs of raising children as reasons for not having children, for revising family size aspirations downward, or for expecting fewer children than desired. On the other hand, new-found job security and financial wellbeing were nominated by some respondents as reasons for revising their family size aspirations upward.

Other costs mentioned both in Chapter 1 and by respondents, as outlined in other chapters, relate to lifestyle issues such as the desire for freedom and independence and the difficulties of parenting. However, Chapter 4 suggests that some individuals may only become aware of how difficult parenting can be after they have a child, while others find parenting a far more enjoyable experience than they had earlier imagined.²²

Another set of explanations for the fall in the fertility rate concerns the decline in partnership rates. This decline was apparent across all ages. Consistent with this explanation, previous chapters in this report suggest a strong link between relationship status and fertility, with married individuals in their twenties and thirties being the most likely of all respondents to want, expect and have children. It appears that the decline in partnership rates is linked with both the difficulties in establishing partnerships and in maintaining them. One likely explanation for this, suggested by several authors, is that the formation and continuation of a relationship have become increasingly contingent on the ability of the relationship to meet emotional needs rather than to meet financial or practical needs or to conform to social pressure (see Qu and Soriano 2004). Allied to this issue, one of the legacies of almost three decades of access to no-fault divorce is an increasing awareness of the potential fragility of relationships (Parker 2002) and of the pain caused to children when their parents' relationship breaks down. These considerations, along with the impact of children on the couple's relationship, may have an important role in decisions about having children.

These are but a few of the considerations examined in this chapter. Others include issues surrounding the means of combining work with family life, the age of each partner, lifestyle matters, affective incentives for having children, and family composition. As outlined in previous chapters, all these considerations have been variously mentioned by respondents as reasons behind their fertility aspirations or expectations. However, these reasons were derived from open-ended questions. The present chapter delves more systematically into the importance respondents attached to a set of considerations that may enter into decisions about having or not having children. The chapter begins by identifying the items that were most commonly considered to be important by men and women. It then examines the patterns of similarities and differences in views on these issues according to age, parental status, relationship status, education level, and employment status.

7.1. Factors important when considering whether to have or not have a child

A set of 28 items was constructed to tap into the main themes discussed in the fertility literature as contributing to the choices and decisions individuals and couples make about having and not having children. For each item, respondents were asked to indicate, on a scale of 0 to 10, how important each factor was when thinking about having or not having a child. High scores (8-10) indicated that the factor was considered to be particularly important to the respondent. The different sets of analysis below focus on the proportions of respondents who attach this level of importance to the various item.²³

7.1.1 Men versus women

Table 7.1 sets out the 28 items contained in the survey and lists them from "most important" to "least important" according to the proportion of men who provided ratings of 8 to 10 on the various items. The proportion of women who provided such ratings is also shown. In order to highlight gender similarities and differences, this set of results is depicted in Figure 7.1. Whilst the rankings of men and women across the 28 items were broadly similar, there were notable differences as well.

Of all items, the seven that were most commonly seen as important by men and women were the same, although the precise rank order of these items was not necessarily the same. However, the top three items were identical for men and women. These were whether they could afford to support a child (considered important by around two thirds of men and women), and whether the male and female partners would be good parents (considered important by 58 to 65 per cent). All three of these considerations relate to the overall ability to provide support to the child, either financially or in terms of quality of parenting. For both men and women, the male partner's job security ranked fourth or fifth in Table 7.1, and was rated as important by 53 per cent of men and 57 per cent of women. "Having someone to love" was considered important by 57 per cent of men and 46 per cent of women, and ranked fourth for men and seventh for women.

The largest gender difference emerged for the item concerning whether a child would make the partner happy, with more men than women considering this to be important (37% vs 23%). This can be interpreted in different ways. For example, men may be more likely than women to discount their own feelings about having children where they perceive their partners' preferences for having children to be particularly strong. Alternatively, this result may reflect a perception by men that women's personal fulfilment is more closely tied to having children than is their own sense of fulfilment.

Also notable was the relatively stronger inclination of women than men to indicate concern about the male partner having the time and energy to put into their career. Forty per cent of women emphasised this issue, compared with 30 per cent of men.

Finally, a higher proportion of women than men saw the stress and worry associated with having a child as important (34% vs 24%), perhaps because women felt they would bear more of the brunt of the difficulties of raising children than would their male partners. On the other hand, a lower proportion of men than women considered having a son to be an important issue in their decision-making (12% vs 23%).

Some other smaller differences between men and women were also interesting and not unexpected. For instance, the female partner's age was more likely to be an issue for women than men (56% compared to 49%). In addition, women were more inclined than men to emphasise access to good affordable child care (46% vs 40%) and the female partner being established in her job/career (37% vs 29%).

7.1.2 Parents versus those without children

Considerable differences emerged between the views of parents and those without children, with most issues being more likely to be emphasised by childless respondents than parents. There are at least two possible explanations for this trend: the experience of parenting may lead people to decide that the issues were not as important as they once thought, and/or those who place less emphasis on such issues may be more inclined than others to become parents. These results are shown in Figures 7.2a and 7.2b.

In several cases, the difference in importance between parents and childless respondents is quite large, including:

• ability to afford to support a child
• uncertainty that the relationship would last
• whether the female partner would make a good parent
• whether the male partner would make a good parent
• whether the male partner was established in his job/career
• the female partner's job security.

In most cases, the difference between fathers and other men was greater than the difference between mothers and other women. The items relating to the "male partner's job security" and the "time/energy for the male partner's career" were less important for fathers than childless men, but not for mothers compared with childless women. Importantly, all of these items concerned parenting, the stability of the relationship, or the security of employment for one or other of the partners.

However, there were a few items that were more likely to be considered important by parents than by those without children. Two of these concerned whether a first or additional child would place "too much stress on the relationship" and whether "other children would miss out" as a result of having another child. In particular, mothers were more likely than childless women to see these issues as important.

Mothers were also more inclined than childless women to view their own age and that of their partner as important. This is not surprising given that parents tended to be older than those without children. However, there was virtually no difference in the proportions of fathers and childless men who considered their own or their partner's age to be important. This may be a reflection of men's propensity to partner younger women. The female partner's age, however, is more critical than the men's age in determining whether or not the couple can have children.

Earlier it was shown that men were more likely than women to attach importance to "whether a child would make their partner happy" (men: 37%; women: 23%) and "having someone to love" (men: 57%; women: 46%). This difference is primarily driven by childless men, for the views of fathers were similar to those of mothers and childless women.

We also saw earlier that men were more likely than women to see as important "having at least one/another boy" (23% compared to 12%, respectively). Figure 7.2b reveals that fathers were less likely than childless men to express concern about this issue. This may simply reflect the fact that some of the men who were parents would have already had at least one son.

Overall then, parents seemed less inclined than childless respondents to attach importance to many of the considerations listed. This may suggest that the issues may lose their salience when couples become parents and a number of "unknowns" thus become "knowns". On the other hand, these issues may be less important at the outset for those who decide to become parents than for others who have decided against having children or who are delaying parenthood. Both these explanations for the results may apply to some extent.

7.2 Simplifying the issues

Clearly, the issues considered important in fertility decision making varied systematically with gender and parenting status. The extent to which respondents' views varied according to age, education, employment, and relationship status was also examined. In order to facilitate interpretation of these results, the 28 items were first statistically manipulated to form four groups of related items in order to facilitate interpretation of results. The individual components of each group of items are shown in Table 7.2.

The first factor contains 7 items and pertains to issues that might be seen as the means to combine work and family and to invest in "human capital" - items relating to job/career and financial security and being able to access child care. The second factor (9 items) encompasses age, affordability, and lifestyle items, and includes the respondent's and their partner's age, whether they could afford to support a first or additional child, and whether having such a child would interfere with the time available for leisure and social activities. Factor 3 (7 items) relates to the respondents' perceptions of their own and their partner's capacity to be a good parent and the impact of having a child on the couple relationship. The fourth factor (5 items) taps into the affective reasons for having children (such as adding purpose and meaning to life) and family composition (giving a existing child a sibling and having at least one boy or girl).

7.3 Comparisons of other socio-demographic groups

This section first compares the views of respondents regarding the work/family set of items, according to respondents' age, relationship status, education, and employment status. The analysis is then repeated for the other three sets of items (age, affordability and lifestyle; parenting and couple relationship; and affective incentives and family composition).

7.3.1 Work/family items

As noted above, work/family items cover issues relating to the ability to combine work and family life and to invest in "human capital". Some of the differences in the proportions of younger respondents (aged 20-29) and older respondents (aged 30-39) who attached importance to particular issues were quite marked (Figure 7.3a). In all cases, younger respondents were more likely than older respondents to emphasise these matters. A higher proportion of younger than older men and women attached importance to the security of the male partner's job (men: 61% vs 44%; women: 64% vs 52%), the male partner being established in his career (men: 50% vs 32%; women: 45% vs 31%), the female partner's job security (42% vs 25%; women: 48% vs 30%), and the female partner being established in her career (men: 36% vs 22%; women: 37% vs 22%). Younger men were also more likely than older men to regard as important the time and energy available for their own career (38% vs 23%) and for their partner's career (33% vs 20%).

The importance attached to work and family items also tended to vary according to relationship status (Figure 7.3b). In general, married respondents were less likely than other respondents to regard these various issues as important. Compared with cohabiting and single respondents, a lower proportion of married men and women attached importance to the male partner being established in his (men: 28% vs 46%-47%; women: 32% vs 42%), the security of the female partner's job (men: 24% vs 35%-38%; women: 30% vs 40-47%), the female partner being established in her career (men: 22% vs 31%-33%; women: 22% vs 32%-35%), and the time and energy available for the female partner's career (men: 20% vs 29%-31%; women: 19% vs 27%-30%). Married men were also less likely than other men to regard their own job security (40% vs 58%-59%) and the time and energy available for their career (23% vs 33%-34%) as important.

Differences were apparent across the range of educational qualifications held by respondents (Figure 7.3c). For men, the greatest differences in views emerged for those without post-school qualifications and those with or pursuing a degree or higher qualification. Higher proportion of the former than latter group emphasised the security of their own job (58% vs 44%), their being established in their career (46% vs 36%), finding good affordable child care (45% vs 34%), and the security of their partner's job (40% vs 24%). Women's responses tended to be rather more similar across the categories of qualifications, although women with or pursuing tertiary qualifications were the least likely of the three groups to attach importance to the security of their partner's job (54% vs 58%-62%), his being established in his career (33% vs 40% respectively), and the time and energy he had available for his career (35% vs 42%-44%).

Men in part-time employment responded rather differently to this group of items compared with other men, especially those working full-time (Figure 7.3d) - a trend that may result from the relatively young age of most of the men with part-time paid work.²⁴ A higher proportion of men working part-time than full-time considered as important their being established in their career (50% vs 38%), their partner's job security (42% vs 30%), and the time and energy that the men had for their career (42% vs 28%), and the time and energy their partner had available for a career (34% vs 24%). The patterns for women were more uniform than those for men, with the exception that women working full-time were more likely than other women to attach importance to finding good affordable child care (53% vs 43%).

7.3.2 Age, affordability, & lifestyle items

With respect to age, affordability, and lifestyle issues, the largest differences between younger (aged 20-29) and older (aged 30-39) men and women emerged for items relating to the ability to afford to support a child and the ability to buy/renovate or move home, with younger respondents being more likely than older respondents to emphasise these issues (Figure 7.3e). The ability to support a child was emphasised by 76 per cent and 55 per cent of younger and older men respectively, and by 74 per cent and 62 per cent of younger and older women respectively, while the ability to buy/renovate or move home was emphasised by 38 per cent and 26 per cent of younger and older men respectively and by 36 per cent and 25 per cent of younger and older women respectively. In addition, men aged in their twenties were more likely than older men to consider their own age to be an important issue (47% vs 38%). In contrast, similar proportions of younger and older men rated the female partner's age as important (51% vs 47%). As would be expected, women in their thirties were more likely to see their own age as an important factor in decisions about having children than women in their twenties (61% vs 49%). Possibly, younger men were focusing on whether or not they were old enough to start a family, while older women were focusing on whether or not they were too old to have a first or additional child.

Single and cohabiting men were more likely than married men to consider as important issues relating to financial and material living standards, including housing, and lifestyle (Figure 7.3f p. 137). More than two thirds of single (71%) and cohabiting (67%) men rated being able to afford to support a child as important, compared to just over half of the married men (55%). Single and cohabiting men were also more likely to regard as important the ability to buy/renovate or move house in comparison to married men (35% and 37% vs 23% respectively). The ability to make major purchases was also more commonly an important factor for single (24%) and cohabiting (27%) men compared to those who were married (16%).

Fairly similar proportions of married, cohabiting and single women tended to consider affordability and lifestyle issues important. However, just over half of the single and cohabiting women attached importance to their own age compared to 61 per cent of married women. In addition, a lower proportion of single and cohabiting women than married women emphasised their partner's age (37%-38% vs 47%).

Views about the importance of age, affordability and lifestyle issues did not vary greatly according to educational qualifications (Figure 7.3g). A notable difference was found between men with no qualifications and those with or pursuing tertiary or other qualifications with respect to the ability to buy/renovate or move home, with 39 per cent of men without post-school qualifications attaching importance to this item compared to men with or pursuing tertiary qualifications (26%) or other (29%) qualifications. With respect to the world being a suitable place to bring up children, only 21 per cent of men with or pursuing tertiary qualifications regarded this as important compared to 33 per cent of men with other post-school qualifications and 34 per cent of men without post-school qualifications.

Of interest was the finding that over half of the tertiary-educated men (54%) rated the female partner's age as important, compared to 45 to 46 per cent of other men. Partner's age was also an issue for tertiary-educated women, with 48 per cent rating this issue as important compared to 36 per cent of those without post-school qualifications. On the other hand, the importance attached to personal age varied little across the educational status groups (men: 39%-43%; women: 55%-58%).

Views about these issues tended to be fairly consistent across employment status groups, although a few slight differences were apparent (Figure 7.3h). The ability to afford to support a child was of concern to almost three quarters of men (71%) in part-time employment but to less than two thirds of unemployed men (62%). The ability to buy/renovate or move to another home was emphasised by 39 per cent of men working part-time compared to 30 per cent of those working full-time. Nearly three quarters of women in full-time work (72%) attached importance to the ability to afford to support a child, compared to 64 per cent of unemployed women.

7.3.3 Parenting/couple items

Differences between respondents in their twenties and thirties were most notable for items concerned with whether respondents or their partners would be good parents (Figure 7.3i). Younger men and women were more likely than their older counterparts to regard as important the capacity of men to be a good parent (men: 69% vs 57%; women: 64% vs 56%), as well as the capacity for women to be a good parent (men: 72% vs 59%; women: 63% vs 54%). Whether the child would be good for the relationship was also regarded as important by more men in their twenties (38%) than men in their thirties (26%).

Married men (57%) were less likely than both cohabiting (67%) and single men (70%) to consider the capacity for the female partner to be a good parent as important (Figure 7.3j). In relation to their own capacity to parent, a similar pattern emerged: 54 per cent of married men attached importance to this compared to 64 per cent of cohabiting men and 68 per cent of single men. For women also, the greatest difference emerged between those who were married and those who were single, with married women reporting less concern about the parenting capacities of either partner. Just over half of the married women (53%) and 64 per cent of the single women regarded their own capacity to parent as important, while with 53 per cent of married women and 67 per cent of single women emphasised to the capacity of the male partner to be a good parent.

Both married men and women were also considerably less likely to attach importance to relationship stability than were cohabiting or single men and women (men: 34% vs 50% and 54% respectively; women: 37% vs 45% and 59% respectively). Married and single men also differed with respect to whether a child would make their partner happier (29% of married vs 41% of single men) and whether a child would be good for the couple relationship (25% of married vs 37% of single men). The other items reflecting concern for parenting and couple relationship issues were emphasised by similar proportions of married, cohabiting and single respondents.

Few notable differences were found across categories of education (Figure 7.3k). The biggest difference occurred between men with no qualifications (52%) and men with or pursuing tertiary qualifications (42%) with respect to uncertainty that the relationship will last. Slightly smaller differences point to tertiary-qualified men being less likely to have concerns regarding their own or their partner's capacity to parent and the stability of the relationship.

Respondents in the three employment status categories differed little with respect to parenting and couple relationship items, although unemployed men tended to be somewhat more likely to consider important the notion that a child would make their partner happier (42%), compared with men working full- or part-time (34%-35%) (Figure 7.3l).

7.3.4 Affective incentives for having children and family composition items

Figure 7.3m indicates that men and women in their twenties were marginally or considerably more likely than their older counterparts to attach importance to the five issues relating to affective incentives and family composition when thinking about having children. The largest age-related difference emerged for the item "having someone to love". Nearly two thirds of younger men (64%) compared to just over half of the older men (53%) considered this matter to be important, as did 52 per cent of younger women compared to 42 per cent of older women. Younger men and women were also more likely than their older counterparts to attach importance to giving an only child a sibling (men: 44% vs 37%; women: 45% vs 31%). Of all male and female groups, having a son was most likely to be emphasised by men in their twenties (30% vs 10%-16%). Finally, younger respondents were marginally more likely than older respondents to attach importance to having a daughter (men: 22% vs 15%; women: 19% vs 13%).

Married men were the least inclined of the three relationship status groups to place emphasis on these various issues, while the views of women in these three groups tended to be fairly similar (Figure 7.3n). The proportions of married and single men differed notably in the importance attached to having someone to love (married 49% vs single 62%) and to the notion that having a child adds purpose and meaning to one's life (married 39% vs single 49%). Fewer married (37%) than cohabiting (47%) men indicated that giving an existing child a sibling would be an important consideration for them. And married men (16%) were less likely than both cohabiting (26%) and single (26%) men to stress the importance of having a son.

While women's views about these issues were not strongly related to educational status, clear differences emerged for men (Figure 7.3o). Compared with other groups of men, higher proportions of those with or pursuing tertiary qualifications emphasised the various issues in this set. For example, having someone to love was important to only 48 per cent of tertiary-educated men compared with 61 to 63 per cent of other men. Having a son was emphasised by 14 per cent of tertiary-educated men, 20 per cent of men with or pursuing other post-school qualifications, and 31 per cent of the men with no post-school qualifications. Similarly, having a daughter was of concern for 11 per cent of the tertiary-educated group, 16 per cent of those with or pursuing other qualifications, and 25 per cent of those with no post-school qualifications.

The importance attached to items addressing the affective incentives for having children and the composition of the family varied little across employment status groups (Figure 7.3p).

7.4 Conclusions

First, it is noteworthy that respondents emphasised a variety of issues in addition the perceived costs of having children. As Table 7.1 shows, the emotional benefits to respondents were high on the list of issues feeding into the process of deciding about having children. Nevertheless, it is important to note that most respondents emphasised the importance of the ability to support a child. By contrast, only one quarter of men and women emphasised concerns about having time for leisure and social activities, and the ability to make major purchases. Despite some respondents reporting that they felt selfish in not wanting children (Chapter 4), the analysis in Chapter 7 suggests that individualistic concerns were not high on the agenda for the majority of respondents.

Overall, fertility-related issues appeared to be less commonly emphasised by parents than by those without children, by married respondents than by those who were not married, and to a lesser extent, by those with or pursuing tertiary qualifications than by others, especially those with no post-school qualifications. In contrast, men with part-time paid work were more inclined than other men to emphasise these issues. However, men who worked part-time tended to be in their twenties (especially early twenties). While age, parental status, and relationship status are also closely inter-related, it is beyond the scope of this report to identify the relative importance of each of these factors in explaining the results.

The issues that most notably varied with age, for both men and women, were those relating to parenting and the emotional benefits of having children, along with job security and becoming established in a job or career. The latter two issues are key drivers of the capacity to provide adequate housing and financial support - issues that were highlighted as important by most respondents across all the socio-demographic groups examined. Compared with their older counterparts, all of these issues were more likely to be salient to the younger respondents, a lower proportion of whom would have achieved these milestones.

Perhaps because married men and women were more likely than others to have achieved at least some of these milestones, these respondents were less likely than unmarried respondents to emphasise the capacity to parent, relationship stability, employment security, and becoming established in a job or career establishment. Furthermore, married men were less likely than other men to express concern about their capacity to support and house a family, the specific structure of that family, the impact of a first or additional child on the couple relationship, and the emotional rewards of having a child.

These findings may suggest that some of the importance attached to fertility-related issues is entwined with the knowledge that comes from having already started a family and/or having gone some way towards creating the kind of "human capital" that will support a family in the future. Another possible explanation is that those who marry or who become parents and those who pursue tertiary education tend to place less emphasis on these various issues at the outset. However, it should be pointed out that the patterns noted above were typically more apparent for men; for a number of issues, the proportions of women indicating an item was important were similar regardless of their age, parental or relationship status, qualifications or employment situation.

For men without post-school qualifications, employment security of each partner was an important consideration when thinking about having a first or additional child, as was finding good quality affordable child care. On the other hand, men with or pursuing degrees were more likely than those with other qualifications or no post-school qualifications to label one issue as important - their partner's age. In addition, men working part-time (most of whom were in their twenties) were more likely than other men to express concern their employment security, becoming established in a career, and having the time and energy available for a career. Although women who were unemployed or working full- or part-time tended to respond in similar ways to most issues, as would be expected, child care was an issue of concern for women working fulltime.

22. Specifically, Chapter 4 showed that, while some childless respondents who did not want children questioned their capacity to be good parents, some parents who had revised their family size aspirations downwards since they were 20 years old indicated that they had not appreciated how much work was involved in parenting until they had a child. On the other hand, revision of family size aspirations upwards was sometimes linked with far greater than expected enjoyment in having and raising children. [back]
23. In the discussion of results, we describe ratings of 8 to 10 as an indication that the issue in question is "emphasised" or "stressed" or considered "important" by respondents. [back]
24. Chapter 3 showed that men who were working part-time were most likely to be in their early twenties, followed by their late twenties (Table 3.4). [back]

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