{"title":"Health in early adulthood and fertility: A study based on the 1958 British cohort.","authors":"Eleonora Trappolini, Alyce Raybould, Giammarco Alderotti","doi":"10.1080/00324728.2025.2531819","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Health is rarely used as an explanatory variable in fertility studies in high-income contexts, unlike in low-income settings. Using the 1958 National Child Development Study, we explore how self-rated health (SRH) and body mass index (BMI) at age 23 relate to achievement of fertility goals by age 46. We find that worse SRH and a BMI outside the healthy range at age 23 are strongly associated with lower fertility and underachieving fertility goals. While poor SRH is associated with lower fertility mostly among men, BMI outside the healthy range at 23 is more significant for women. Additional analyses indicate that employment and union history partly mediate the effect of health on fertility, but health retains a substantive direct effect. Our findings suggest that health in early adulthood is an important determinant, whether direct or indirect, of family life-course trajectories. This paper endorses the inclusion of health as an explanatory variable in studies of fertility in high-income contexts.</p>","PeriodicalId":47814,"journal":{"name":"Population Studies-A Journal of Demography","volume":" ","pages":"1-18"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Population Studies-A Journal of Demography","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2025.2531819","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"DEMOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Health is rarely used as an explanatory variable in fertility studies in high-income contexts, unlike in low-income settings. Using the 1958 National Child Development Study, we explore how self-rated health (SRH) and body mass index (BMI) at age 23 relate to achievement of fertility goals by age 46. We find that worse SRH and a BMI outside the healthy range at age 23 are strongly associated with lower fertility and underachieving fertility goals. While poor SRH is associated with lower fertility mostly among men, BMI outside the healthy range at 23 is more significant for women. Additional analyses indicate that employment and union history partly mediate the effect of health on fertility, but health retains a substantive direct effect. Our findings suggest that health in early adulthood is an important determinant, whether direct or indirect, of family life-course trajectories. This paper endorses the inclusion of health as an explanatory variable in studies of fertility in high-income contexts.
期刊介绍：
For over half a century, Population Studies has reported significant advances in methods of demographic analysis, conceptual and mathematical theories of demographic dynamics and behaviour, and the use of these theories and methods to extend scientific knowledge and to inform policy and practice. The Journal"s coverage of this field is comprehensive: applications in developed and developing countries; historical and contemporary studies; quantitative and qualitative studies; analytical essays and reviews. The subjects of papers range from classical concerns, such as the determinants and consequences of population change, to such topics as family demography and evolutionary and genetic influences on demographic behaviour.
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