Family and Socioeconomic Predictors of Childlessness for Women in High Income Countries: a multilevel analysis

Studies of women’s childlessness have shown strong associations with socioeconomic status (SES) indicators, particularly education. In addition to socioeconomic considerations, families are known to influence women’s fertility outcomes throughout the world though various mechanisms: childcare provision, financial transfers, emotional closeness, and proximity. This research tests the hypothesis that the effect of kin proximity, measured by living with one’s parents into adulthood, on women’s probability of remaining childless will vary depending upon SES environment. We find that while living with one’s parents in adulthood positively relates to being childless, this association is stronger for low-wealth women than high-wealth women controlling for education, partnership, and other factors known to affect fertility. It is suggested that the effects of proximity to family on women’s fertility may vary by wealth due to the effects of resource stress or abundance. Either way, these results suggest clearly that the associations between family indicators and women’s fertility are flexible with SES environments.