Fertility intentions depend on intergenerational relations: A life course perspective

Although the influence of the parental home on individual's fertility is a well-established fact in social sciences, the mechanism behind this influence remains unclear. This study investigated the role of experiencing parental divorce during childhood and current intergenerational family relationships in association with fertility intentions of young adults, based on a life course theoretical framework. Data from the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (N = 2137) were analysed to predict childbearing intentions in childless respondents and those who had children already. A trend was found for experiencing parental divorce during childhood in predicting a negative intention to have a(nother) child(ren) in the future for both subsamples. This intention was positively predicted by higher quality of current relationships with parents for childless respondents. The negative trend of divorce on childbearing intentions was mediated by current family ties for both subsamples. This study offers an expansion of previous fertility research by applying a life course framework to explain part of the childbearing decision process – fertility intentions.