Delayers, Debaters, and Decliners: Tracking Childless Women’s Reproductive Trajectories

• In Event: 4364 - Contextualizing Reproductive Trajectories

Abstract

This paper tracks the reproductive desires and outcomes of a sample of childless women using a mixed-method, longitudinal approach. During Wave 1, interviews were conducted with 72 childless American women between the ages of 25 and 40 about their reproductive desires and intentions. Approximately four years later during Wave 2, a subset of the original sample participated in surveys to assess consistencies between fertility intentions and outcomes, and in-depth interviews to elicit information about the changes in their lives that transpired in the intervening years. Although 25% of the Wave 2 participants had attempted to have children, mostly successfully, the majority had either decided to remain childfree, were still debating whether or not they wanted to have children, or did not yet feel that they were ready to start trying to have the children that they desired. By collecting qualitative and quantitative data from participants about their reproductive plans and desires at more than one point in time, we may track how motivations and desires change over time, whether actions and behaviors remain consistent with motivations and desires, and how women interpret these changes, inconsistencies, and fulfillments of their desires.

Author

• Lauren Jade Martin, Penn State University, Berks