A Multilevel Analysis of Parent and Partner Effects on Progression to Subsequent Birth in High Income Countries: Interactions with Socioeconomic Status

This research considers whether the availability and investments of parents and partners influences women’s birth progressions, and whether interactions between these investments and socioeconomic position (SEP) are observed. There is ample evidence that parents and partners influence women’s fertility throughout the world. Parents may influence women’s fertility through proximity, childcare provision, financial transfers, and emotional support. Investments of partners in household tasks are positively linked to fertility desires. SEP is associated with fertility, but also availability and investments of parents and partners. Our analysis of Generations and Gender Survey data confirm different availabilities of parents and partner investments by SEP: wealth positively relates to partner investments and the proportions of women with living parents. Results from discrete-time event history models indicate that education level and partner investments negatively relate to birth progressions, but that these effects differ by education: partner investments have a less negative relationship to the probability of birth for highly educated women than women with lower completed education. Further analyses will be used to determine if the effects of family and SEP may vary depending on women’s parity progressions.