Why do people postpone parenthood? Reasons and social policy incentives

Abstract

Background: Never before have parents in most Western societies had their first children as late as in recent decades. What are the central reasons for postponement? What is known about the link between the delay of childbearing and social policy incentives to counter these trends? This review engages in a systematic analysis of existing evidence to extract the maximum amount of knowledge about the reasons for birth postponement and the effectiveness of social policy incentives.

Methods: The review followed the PRISMA procedure, with literature searches conducted in relevant demographic, social science and medical science databases (SocINDEX, Econlit, PopLine, Medline) and located via other sources. The search focused on subjects related to childbearing behaviour, postponement and family policies. National, international and individual-level data sources were also used to present summary statistics.

Results: There is clear empirical evidence of the postponement of the first child. Central reasons are the rise of effective contraception, increases in women's education and labour market participation, value changes, gender equity, partnership changes, housing conditions, economic uncertainty and the absence of supportive family policies. Evidence shows that some social policies can be effective in countering postponement.

Conclusions: The postponement of first births has implications on the ability of women to conceive and parents to produce additional offspring. Massive postponement is attributed to the clash between the optimal biological period for women to have children with obtaining additional education and building a career. A growing body of literature shows that female employment and childrearing can be combined when the reduction in work-family conflict is facilitated by policy intervention.

Figure 1

Reported age that a woman is too old to consider having more children, respondents aged 25–42 years old, selected European countries. Source: Created by authors using Wave 3 of the European Social Survey, collected in 2006 in 23 countries. Notes: Analysis restricted to individuals aged 25-42 years old at the time of the survey. The specific question (38a) asked: After what age would you say a woman is generally too old to consider having any more children?

Figure 2

PRISMA flow diagram of review process.

Figure 3

Mean age at first birth by educational level, women born 1960–1969, selected European countries. Source: European Social Survey, 2006, women only, born 1960–1969, n = 7307, calculations by authors.