Chapter 6 Flashcards
transitions
- focus shifts from contraception to getting pregnant
- birth of child = major life transition
- parent role is dictated by age of child and experiences child brings to parent
- 75% of couples have declines in feelings of love after birth of first child (“U”-curve) -> hormones play a role
transition point
day/time of birth
process of transitioning to parenthood involves
- deciding to have a baby
- conception
- gestation
- birth
- process of adaptation to having a child at home
timing norms
- age and duration-graded
- ex. breastfeeding
macro-structural causes for wanting children
environment, social norms, economic constraints (we expect fertility to decline in tough economic times)
micro-individual causes for wanting children
- conformity (having children is what adults do)
- experience (don’t want to miss out on experience of having kids)
- social capital (having kids adds to network of relationships you have access to)
- security in old age
- entertainment
desired/intended fertility
- how many kids an individual would like to have (2.4 in Canada)
- tends to be higher than actual fertility
actual fertility
- how many kids an individual has in reality (
voluntary childlessness vs. involuntary childlessness
- voluntary: don’t want kids
- involuntary: can’t have kids (due to fertility issues, etc.)
crude birth rate (CBR)
- number of live births to women in a year
- problem: includes pre-pubescent women and post-menopausal women
total fertility rate (TFR)
- estimate of fertility per woman
- assumes: she will maintain cohort rate of fertility for the past year and she will live to end of her fertility
age-specific fertility
- number of children born to women within a specific age range in a year
- ex. 20-24; 25-29
population decline
the point at which more people die than are born
replacement-level fertility
fertility needed to replace each parent with a child who reached reproductive age (Canada: 2.1)
fertility timing
- timing of life events (education, occupation) has important implications for timing and ability to have kids
- if couples put off having kids, they may be left with small window of fertility
- nowadays, fertility rate is increasing for 30-39 year olds and decreasing for other age levels