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Students and Family Formation: Studies on educational enrolment and childbearing in Sweden
Stockholm University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology. (Demography Unit)
2013 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This thesis explores the impact of educational enrolment on family formation in Sweden. The aim is to identify factors that are important for students’ childbearing and to find potential explanations as to why so few students have children while enrolled in education. Three independent studies are carried out, two quantitative and one qualitative. Study I examines the associations between age, earnings, a student financial aid reform, and female students’ first, second and third birth risks. Study II takes a gender perspective and compares the influence of mothers’ and fathers’ enrolment and earnings on parental couples’ propensities to have a second or a third child. In both these studies the analyses are performed using longitudinal register data. Study III explores male and female students’ childbearing intentions, and the motivations behind them, through individual in-depth interviews with childless students. Several findings point towards the significance of economic factors. The results in Study I show that earnings have a clear impact on female students’ birth risks, and in Study III economic security is found to be an important motive behind the students’ childbearing intentions. However, the student financial aid reform investigated in Study I had no noticeable impact on students’ childbearing behaviour. The negative effect of educational enrolment on childbearing risks, as well as the significance of earnings and economic security, is clearly weakened by age. In addition to economic security, the interview accounts indicate that non-material aspects, such as the biological risks of postponement, knowing one’s future prospects and being content with life, are also important for the timing of childbearing. The implications of educational enrolment for family formation are also found to be largely dependent on gender, as in Study II mothers’ educational enrolment had a much stronger negative impact on couples’ continued childbearing than fathers’ enrolment. Further, compared to the males, the female respondents in Study III had much more knowledge about the parental leave system, and parental leave and their benefit level were also things they took into account to a much larger extent when discussing their childbearing intentions. The gender differences are likely associated with the Swedish earnings-related parental leave insurance and mothers still taking the largest part of the leave. The fact that both economic security and the biological risks associated with postponement are seen as crucial factors for timing of family formation implies that some students, particularly females above age 30, find themselves in a difficult situation.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, 2013. , p. 49
Series
Dissertation series / Stockholm University Demography Unit, ISSN 1404-2304 ; 9
Keywords [en]
students, educational enrolment, childbearing, gender, Sweden
National Category
Sociology
Research subject
Sociological Demography
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-94174Libris ID: 14751313ISBN: 978-91-87235-55-9 (print)ISBN: 978-91-87235-56-6 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-94174DiVA, id: diva2:652396
Public defence
2013-11-15, De Geersalen, Geovetenskapens hus, Svante Arrhenius väg 14, Stockholm, 13:00 (Swedish)
Opponent
Supervisors
Note

At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.

Available from: 2013-10-24 Created: 2013-09-30 Last updated: 2022-05-20Bibliographically approved
List of papers
1. Does Money Matter? Childbearing Behaviour of Swedish Students in the 1980's and 1990's
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Does Money Matter? Childbearing Behaviour of Swedish Students in the 1980's and 1990's
2011 (English)In: Finnish Yearbook of Population Research, ISSN 1796-6183, E-ISSN 1796-6191, p. 5-19Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Education is considered to be one of the primary factors behind postponement of childbearing, as students have significantly lower fertility than non-students of the same age. The low fertility of students may have many different explanations. This study focus on the impact of economic and policy factors on the relationship between study enrolment and childbearing in Sweden. Using longitudinal data it is examined whether the student financial aid reform of 1989 had any effect on female students’ childbearing behaviour and whether female students’ relative childbearing propensities change when controlling for their earned income. The results show that the reform had no noticeable impact on students’ childbearing behaviour. However, first birth risks for female students in all age groups are clearly related to earnings, indicating that low fertility of students is, to some degree, a matter of economic constraints.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Helsinki: Väestöliitto, The Family Federation of Finland, 2011
Keywords
Sweden, students, childbearing, fertility, education
National Category
Sociology
Research subject
Demography
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-94159 (URN)
Available from: 2013-09-30 Created: 2013-09-30 Last updated: 2022-02-24Bibliographically approved
2. Care and Career - Educational Enrolment and Couples' Childbearing Behaviour in Sweden
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Care and Career - Educational Enrolment and Couples' Childbearing Behaviour in Sweden
(English)Manuscript (preprint) (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This study deals with the interrelationship between the gendered division of labour, education, earnings and childbearing. Using couple data for Swedish parents, it is explored whether the father’s and the mother’s student status and earnings are associated in different ways with a couple’s propensities to have a second or a third child, and whether couples’ childbearing propensities, with reference to student status and earnings, have changed in recent decades. The results show that couples in which neither of the parents, or only the father, is a student, have the highest second and third birth risks, regardless of income. Couples in which the mother is a student have the lowest propensity to have another child. The pattern is stable over time. The strong negative effect of mothers’ enrolment on childbearing propensities is likely related to mothers still using the largest part of the parental leave days. As the Swedish parental leave insurance is based on previous earnings, it is relatively more important for women than for men to attain a decent income before having a child.

 

Keywords
childbearing, earnings, gender, study enrolment, Sweden
National Category
Sociology
Research subject
Demography
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-94160 (URN)
Available from: 2013-09-30 Created: 2013-09-30 Last updated: 2022-02-24Bibliographically approved
3. First Education, then Children? A Qualitiative Study of Students' Childbearing Attitudes and Intentions
Open this publication in new window or tab >>First Education, then Children? A Qualitiative Study of Students' Childbearing Attitudes and Intentions
(English)Manuscript (preprint) (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

In all Western countries, students have significantly lower fertility than non-students of the same age. Extended education is therefore considered one of the most important factors behind the postponement of first birth. This study investigates students’ childbearing intentions and the motivations behind them through individual in-depth interviews with 25 childless students enrolled in higher education in Sweden. The results suggest that the postponement of childbearing until completion of education is above all a question of economic security. The importance of completing one’s education and achieving economic security is weakened by age, however, and the biological risks associated with postponement of child­bearing are found to be a significant factor in particularly the female students’ childbearing intentions. Mental well-being and knowing what you want to do with your life are also important preconditions in this regard. A sense of being on the “right” educational track increases the feeling of security and the inclination to have children. On most issues, male and female students reasoned along the same lines. One gender difference, however, was that female students had much more knowledge about the parental leave insurance system, and parental leave and their benefit level was something they took into account, and planned for, to a greater extent than men did.

Keywords
students, childbearing intentions, gender, qualitative interviews, Sweden
National Category
Sociology
Research subject
Demography
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-94161 (URN)
Available from: 2013-09-30 Created: 2013-09-30 Last updated: 2022-02-24Bibliographically approved

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