Caroline Sten Hartnett

Parental Support During Young Adulthood Why Does Assistance Decline With Age

Previous research has found that financial transfers from parents to young adult children decline as children age and that age is one of the strongest predictors of support. Using data collected from young adults (age 18-34 years) and their parents (age 40-60 years; N = 536 parent–child dyads), the authors explore the possibility that the relationship between age and financial support is mediated by offspring needs, acquisition of adult roles, or geographical and emotional closeness. The authors find that age-related declines in offspring’s needs help explain why financial support falls with age. However, offspring age remains a robust predictor of financial support after controlling for a wide range of factors, suggesting that age norms condition support from parents to offspring.

The gap between births intended and births achieved in 22 European countries, 2004-07

Using data from the 2004 and 2007 waves of the European Social Survey (ESS), we find that for every 100 births intended, about 60 births occur, on average, across 22 countries. This shortfall in fertility masks substantial heterogeneity between subgroups within the populations surveyed. Motherhood status, age, partnership status, and the strength of fertility intentions moderate the relationship between womens childbearing plans and births measured at the country level. Individual-level analyses using data from three countries included in the 2005 and 2008 waves of the Generations and Gender Survey are consistent with our country-level analyses. We demonstrate that repeat cross-sectional data can be used to analyse the correspondence between childbearing plans and births when longitudinal data are lacking.

White-Hispanic Differences in Meeting Lifetime Fertility Intentions in the U.S.

BACKGROUND Hispanics in the U.S. have higher fertility than non-Hispanic Whites but it is not clear why this difference exists nor whether fertility levels reflect the preferences of individuals in these groups. Understanding racial-ethnic differences in fertility is important for understanding American fertility more broadly since the majority of births in the U.S. are to non-White women. OBJECTIVE This paper examines the correspondence between fertility intentions and outcomes for Hispanic and White women and men in the U.S. METHODS Panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth are used to describe intended family size (recorded at age 22), completed family size (recorded at age 42 and above), and the likelihood that these numbers match, for Hispanic and White women and men. Regression analyses are used to understand why the correspondence between intentions and outcomes varies across groups. RESULTS Although Hispanics come closer to achieving parity intentions in the aggregate (Hispanic women fall short by a quarter of a birth, compared to more than two-fifths for Whites), at the individual level they are not more likely to meet their intentions (33% of Hispanic women achieve their desired parity, compared with 38% of Whites). Hispanics have higher fertility than Whites both because they intend more children at the start of their reproductive lives and because they are more likely to exceed these intentions. CONCLUSIONS Higher fertility among Hispanics compared with Whites in the U.S. is due to a combination of wanted and unwanted fertility. In addition, despite relatively high completed fertility, a large proportion of Hispanic women and men fall short of early life intentions.

Hispanic Familism Reconsidered

Familism has been described as a cultural trait that might explain why the fertility of Hispanic women remains higher than non-Hispanic white women. Still, few studies have analyzed group differences in childbearing attitudes. This article focuses on two dimensions of childbearing orientation: social value of children and fertility intentions. Using the National Survey of Family Growth, we find limited support for the idea that familism undergirds differentials in fertility between native-born Hispanics and whites. However, for foreign-born Hispanics, there are some differences in the perceived value of children compared with whites, and these differences could contribute to fertility differentials.