Childlessness and Mental Health in the United States

Research that explores the influence of mental health on fertility is limited. Mental health is a factor in the formation of relationships and may influence fertility related behavior. This analysis presents findings of an initial effort to assess the relationship between psychiatric disorders and fertility of women aged 40 years and older. The initial focus for this analysis is on childlessness.
Data for the analysis are from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), a nationally representative face-to-face household survey of adults in the United States conducted from 2001 to 2003. NCS-R retrospectively assessed predictors and prevalence of mental health disorders, substance use disorders. We examined childlessness as related to each of the major DSM-IV psychiatric disorders. A separate model was constructed for each psychiatric disorder and education and marital status were controlled.
Among the sample of women, those who had been diagnosed with conduct disorder were 2.6 times more likely to be childless compared women without conduct disorder, controlling for the covariates. Those diagnosed with drug abuse disorder were 2.1 times more likely to be childless. While the crude odds of childlessness was significantly higher among those with alcohol abuse disorder, the adjusted odds were not significant.