Analyzing Contemporary Fertility

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

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2. Introduction

   • Robert Schoen

   Pages 1-5

3. Contemporary Perspectives on Fertility

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 7-7

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   2. Social Capital, Gender Competition, and the Resurgence of Childlessness

      • Robert Schoen, Lowell Hargens

      Pages 9-24

   3. Uncertainty and Narratives of the Future: A Theoretical Framework for Contemporary Fertility

      • Daniele Vignoli, Giacomo Bazzani, Raffaele Guetto, Alessandra Minello, Elena Pirani

      Pages 25-47Open Access

   4. Social Contagion Effects in Fertility: Theory and Analytical Strategy

      • Nicoletta Balbo, Nicola Barban

      Pages 49-64

   5. Context of Interracial Childbearing in the United States

      • Zhenchao Qian, Yifan Shen

      Pages 65-87

4. Fertility Intentions

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 89-89

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   2. Do Reproductive Attitudes and Knowledge Explain Race-Ethnic-Nativity Differences in Unintended Fertility?

      • Karen Benjamin Guzzo, Sarah R. Hayford, Vanessa Wanner Lang

      Pages 91-132

   3. Regional Fertility Differences in India

      • Esha Chatterjee, Sonalde Desai

      Pages 133-169

5. The Demography of Multipartner Fertility

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 171-171

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   2. Multi-Partner Fertility in Europe and the United States

      • Elizabeth Thomson, Edith Gray, Marcia J. Carlson

      Pages 173-198

   3. Welfare Regimes and Fertility in Second Unions

      • Mariana Fernández Soto, Ana Fostik, Benoît Laplante

      Pages 199-235

   4. Trends in Years Spent as Mothers of Young Children: The Role of Completed Fertility, Birth Spacing, and Multiple Partner Fertility

      • Christine R. Schwartz, Catherine Doren, Anita Li

      Pages 237-256

   5. Where’s Daddy? Challenges in the Measurement of Men’s Fertility

      • Lindsay M. Monte, Jason M. Fields

      Pages 257-284

6. Issues of Measurement

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 285-285

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   2. Measuring the Prevalence of Multipartner Fertility Independent of Fertility Level

      • Robert Schoen

      Pages 287-292

   3. Cross-Sectional Average Length of Life by Parity: Illustration of US Cohorts of Reproductive Age in 2015

      • Ryohei Mogi, Vladimir Canudas-Romo

      Pages 293-306

This edited volume offers state-of-the-art research on the dynamics of contemporary fertility by examining the implications of the economic and social forces that are driving the rapid change in fertility behavior, and the changing context, determinants, and measurement of contemporary human reproduction. The volume explores new theoretical avenues that seek to incorporate uncertainty, examine social contagion effects, and explain the rise in childlessness. Reproductive attitudes are re-examined in chapters that deal with models of parenthood and with the persistence of race-ethnic-nativity differences. A new and important subject of multi-partner fertility is also described by examining it in the context of total fertility and from the usually neglected perspective of men. The impact of divorce on fertility, the measurement of childlessness and the postponement of first births, developments in assortative mating and fertility, and current patterns of interracial fertility are also addressed in this volume. By combining up-to-date research spanning the entire field to illuminate contemporary developments, the book is a valuable source for demographers, sociologists, economists, and all those interested in understanding fertility in today's world.

• Contemporary fertility
• Human fertility
• Fertility analysis
• Second Demographic Transition
• Social contagion effects
• Religion and fertility
• Areal differences in fertility
• Reproductive attitudes and knowledge
• Fertility and divorce
• Fertility of men
• Fertility by parity
• Interracial fertility
• Childlessness
• Welfare and fertility
• Multipartner fertility
• Assortative mating and fertility
• Uncertainty and fertility

• Population Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA

  Robert Schoen

Robert Schoen received a Ph.D. degree in Demography from the University of California Berkeley in 1972. He has been a Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Johns Hopkins University, and Penn State University, where he was the Hoffman Professor of Family Sociology and Demography. In 2004, he received the Mindel Sheps Award in Mathematical Demography / Demographic Methods from the Population Association of America.

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