No Time to Lose? Stable Partnership as a Prerequisite to Childbearing across Ages.

Cristina Suero-García, Department of Demography University of Vienna, Wittgenstein Centre (IIASA, OeAW/VID, University of Vienna)
Eva Beaujouan, University of Vienna (Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital)

As part of a broader trend towards postponing fertility in Europe, many individuals tend to delay childbearing until they find a suitable partner. However, as women´s reproductive capacity declines with age, older women may adopt a more flexible approach to these criteria, potentially having children in shorter or less stable relationships. This study uses data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) to test this hypothesis by examining the following phenomena: 1) single women accelerating childbearing upon entering a union, by age; 2) partnered women ending a relationship shortly after having a child, by age; and 3) women having children without a partner, by age. The study also considers temporal and spatial variations in these patterns. Exploratory analyses seem to suggest that the acceleration of the entry into motherhood after starting a relationship is higher among women aged 28 and above compared to younger women (up to age 27). This indicates that younger women do not feel the same pressure from the ticking clock and may spend some more time testing the relationship before having children. However, as women reach ages where fecundity diminishes, they may lower their prerequisites for parenthood and accelerate childbearing.

Keywords: Families, Unions and Households, Fertility, Longitudinal studies

See extended abstract.