Abstract

PIP: The aim of this study was to determine the influence of religious affiliation, religious homogamy, religiosity, and religious marriage on voluntary and temporary childlessness and to compare childlessness patterns among Canadian-born and foreign-born women. Data were obtained from the 1984 Canadian Fertility Survey of 2863 women aged 18-49 years who were married to their first husband or living in consensual unions. The sample included 216 childless women, of whom 98 were voluntarily childless and 91 were temporarily childless. Analysis performed with probit maximum likelihood techniques and bivariate forms revealed that homogamous Catholics were less likely to remain temporarily childless but more likely to be voluntarily childless than non-Catholics. Multivariate analysis found that age, marriage age, education, and husband's income were statistically significantly related to voluntary childlessness. The likelihood of childlessness was also influenced by young age, later marriage, higher education, employment, women with husbands with lower income, and women who attend church services less frequently. Religious homogamous marriage was unrelated to childlessness. Frequent church attendance decreased the odds of deciding not to have children. Neither Catholic homogamy nor non-Catholic homogamy had an important effect after interaction terms for both religiosity and homogamy were included. Childlessness among foreign-born women was significantly more likely among those whose husbands had lower income, nonreligious women, and non-Catholic women who married heterogamously. Canadian women's childlessness was significantly related to education, husband's income, religiosity, and non-Catholic homogamy.