Parenthood & Children Multi-media Presentation

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Chapter 8

Deciding About Parenthood

Chapter Outline

Fertility Trends in the United States
Things to Consider When Deciding about Parenthood
Having Children: Options and Circumstances
Preventing Pregnancy

Chapter Outline

Abortion
Involuntary Infertility and Reproductive Technology
Adoption

Fertility Trends in the United States

The total fertility rate (TFR) is the number of births a typical woman will have over her lifetime.
The TFR dropped sharply from a high of more than 3.5 at the peak of the baby boom to the lowest level ever recorded: 1.7 in 1976.
In recent years, the total fertility rate has fluctuated around 2.0; on average, American women are having around two children each.

Total Fertility Rates,
United States, 1911–2013

Family Size

The ideal family size in the United States is now two children.
Large families are stigmatized, though some people continue to choose large families for religious reasons.

Fertility Trends in the United States

The decline in fertility is actually a continuation of a long-term pattern dating to about 1800.
Changes in the economy and subsequently in gender roles—as women’s employment increased, fertility declined.
Declining infant mortality rates—it became unnecessary to bear so many children to ensure the survival of a few.

Fertility Trends in the United States

Two children currently constitute American’s ideal family. Most couples want one girl and one boy.
Large families are looked down on. Many large families are religious (e.g., Quiverfull movement).
We continue to see childbearing increasingly shifted to later ages.
The birthrate for those ages 15-19 has declined to the lowest record in 70 years of record keeping.

Differential Fertility Rates by Education, Income, and Race/Ethnicity

Families with higher education and income tend to have fewer children
Accounting for slightly less than 50 percent, nonHispanic white births are no longer a majority in the United States.
All women in the U.S. have lowered their fertility since 1990.

Differential Fertility Rates

Fertility rates vary among segments of the population.
Women who are not in the labor force have higher birthrates and a larger completed family size on average than employed women.
Beliefs and values about having children vary among cultures.

United States total fertility rates (TFR) by
race/ethnicity, 1990, 2000, 2013

Native American Fertility Rates

Native Americans/Alaska Natives currently have the lowest fertility rates in the U.S., proving the exception to the rule that lower education and income are associated with higher fertility rates.

Things to Consider When Deciding About Parenthood

Variations in birthrates reflect decisions shaped by values and attitudes about children.
In a 2008 survey, women over half of all pregnancies to American women were unintended
20% unwanted
31% mistimed

Social Pressures to Have Children

Social pressure to have children—so-called pronatalist bias—might influence fertility decisions.
Some of the strongest pressures may come from a couple’s parents.

Is American Society Antinatalist?

Some argue that U.S. society is characterized by structural antinatalism—not doing all it can to support parents and their children.
Compared to other nations at our economic level, nutrition, social service, financial aid, and education programs directly affecting the welfare of children are not adequate.

Value of Children

Children can bring vitality and a sense of purpose into a household.
Having a child broadens a parent’s role in the world.
Mothers and fathers become nurturers, advocates, authority figures, counselors, caregivers, and playmates.

Rewards and Costs of Parenthood

Value of children perspective – The idea that children bring unique benefits to parents
Despite the rewards, though, raising children is costly.
One study concludes that parents exaggerate the “joy of parenthood” to emotionally counter the costs.

Costs of Having Children

In 2013, the cost for a middle-income family to raise a child to the age of 18 was $245,000 (not including college).
Opportunity Costs
Parents forgo income and investment when they raise their children.
Parents work additional hours and have less leisure time.

How Children Affect Couple Happiness

Evidence shows that children, especially young ones, stabilize marriage.
But a stable marriage is not necessarily a happy one.
Research finds that not only do parents report lower marital satisfaction than nonparents, but the more children there are, the lower marital satisfaction is.
Parents are also more likely to experience depression than are nonparents.

Choosing to be Childfree

Voluntary childlessness (or being voluntarily childfree) is the choice of approximately 15% of American women aged 44 to 49.
The United States appears to have strong, although weakening, fertility norms that continue to encourage two children and discourage childlessness and only-child families.

The Lives of the Childfree

The voluntarily childless have more education and are more likely to have managerial or professional employment and higher incomes.
They are more urban, less traditional in gender roles, less likely to have a religious affiliation, and less conventional than their counterparts.
They value relative freedom to change jobs or careers, move around the country, and pursue endeavors.
They are more satisfied with their relationships than parenting couples.

Having Children: Options and Circumstances

Decisions about becoming parents are being made in a much wider variety of circumstances.
Timing Parenthood: Earlier versus Later
The age of first birth has increased.
Birthrates have declined for women in their teens and in their thirties.
Birthrates for women in their forties continue to increase dramatically.

Postponing Parenthood

Many couples today are postponing parenthood into their thirties, sometimes later.

Postponing Parenthood

Factors:

Later age at marriage
Desire of women to complete their education and become established in their careers
Both women and men remain longer in the “emerging adulthood” stage
Availability of reliable contraception
Assisted reproduction technology

Early and Late Parenthood

Consequences:

Early parents means greater freedom after the children are raised. They also can get child-rearing help from their own parents.
However, young parents must often forgo education and may get a slow start to their careers.
Young couples sometimes lack the maturity to cope with family responsibilities.

Early and Late Parenthood

Consequences:

Some women who postponed parenthood found that combining established careers with parenting created unforeseen problems.
Late mothers had more confidence about their ability to manage, more money to arrange services, and more confidence about parenting.
Late fathers expressed a great deal of joy in parenthood.

Early and Late Parenthood

Consequences:

Children born to older parents benefit from the financial and emotional stability that older parents can provide.
But they also often experience anxiety about their parents’ health and mortality.

Child Spacing

Experts report that for the physical and intellectual health of both mother and child, the optimal spacing children of children is a minimum of three years.
For prospective parents interested in the timing of their parenthood, it’s important to have an awareness of the trade-offs.

Having Only One Child

The number of one-child families continues a steady increase, making up about 20 percent of American families.
The proportion of one-child families in America appears to be growing due to four factors:
Women’s increasing career opportunities
Individuals’ desire to parent in a context of inadequate workplace support for parents
The high cost of raising a child through college
Greater peer support

The One-Child Family

Advantages

Parents report they can enjoy parenthood without feeling overwhelmed and tied down.
They have more free time and are better off financially.
Family members share decisions more equally and can afford to do more things together.
Higher educational expectations for the child
More likely to know child’s friends
Had more money saved for college education

The One-Child Family

Disadvantages

Lack of opportunity to experience sibling relationships
Only children may face extra pressure from parents to succeed.
As adults, they have no help in caring for aging parents.
For parents, there is the fear that the only child will be injured or die and that they only have one chance to prove themselves good parents.

Siblings

Siblings who get along well can provide companionship and support for each other as they go through life, especially when it comes to becoming a parent.

Nonmarital Births

Approximately 44% of births are to unmarried women.
The growing proportion of nonmarital births accompanies changing societal attitudes.
Unmarried parents, including those not living together, may have a more regular relationship than was previously thought.

Births to Unmarried Women As a Percentage of All Births, 2014

Nonmarital Births

Cohabitants:
58% of nonmarital births are to cohabiting women.
Unmarried parents may have a more regular relationship than previously thought.
The notion that unwed fathers are not present at their child’s birth appears to be a myth. Yet their involvement is likely to decline over time.
Women cannot count on lifetime male support even if they marry, which provides less motivation for women to avoid childbirth outside of marriage.

Nonmarital Births

Single Mothers by Choice:
The image is that of an older woman with an education, an established job, and economic resources who has made a choice to become a single mother.
They often see themselves not as alternative lifestyle pioneers but as conforming to normal family goals.

Nonmarital Births

Births to Adolescents:
Prospects for the children of teen parents include lower academic achievement and, because of the lack of resources related to poverty, a trend toward a cycle of early unmarried pregnancy themselves.
Economic and/or racial/ethnic disadvantage may play a larger role than age in shaping a teen mother’s limited future.

Multipartnered Fertility

Multipartnered fertility is a new interest and area of research for family social scientists.
Study of urban parents at the time of their first birth realized in follow-up that some of those parents, particularly those unmarried at the birth, went on to have children with new partners.
Multipartnered fertility is most common in nonmarital families as these have a high rate of breakup.

Preventing Pregnancy

About 4.5 million women who do not want to become pregnant engage in sexual intercourse without using birth control.
The pill is the most common method of birth control, followed by surgical sterilization, primarily for women in their thirties and older.
Less-educated women tend to use less effective methods, if they use them at all.
About 50 million men have had a vasectomy, a form of birth control that involves surgical sterilization and should be considered permanent.

Abortion

The term abortion is used for the expulsion of the embryo or fetus from the uterus, either surgically or pharmaceutically.
About 30% of American women will have an induced abortion at some point in their lives.
Abortion decisions are primarily made in the context of unmarried, accidental pregnancy.
Abortion decisions vary greatly by age, race/ethnicity, and income

Reasons for Abortion

Having a child would interfere with the woman’s education, work, or ability to care for dependents – 74%
Not being able to afford a baby at this time – 73%
Not wishing to be a single mother or having relationship problems – 48%
The woman or couple had completed childbearing – 38%

The Politics of Family Planning, Contraception, and Abortion

1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade, legalized abortion throughout the U.S.
Abortion continues to be legally available, as pro-choice advocates wish, while the goals of pro-life advocates have been partially reached through legal and practical restrictions on abortion availability.
This corresponds with the centrist position of the American public, which favors abortion under certain circumstances.
Many states have placed serious restrictions on access to abortion, which have been upheld by the Supreme Court.

The Politics of Family Planning, Contraception, and Abortion

In 2015, 29% of U.S. adults said abortion should be legal under any circumstances; 51% said it should be legal only under certain circumstances; 19% said it should be illegal in all circumstances; and 1% had no opinion.

Deciding about an Abortion

For most women and many of their male partners, abortion is an emotionally charged and often upsetting experience.
Some women feel guilty and frightened; others report feeling personally empowered.
The question of abortion sometimes arises for couples who learn their fetus has a serious defect.

Involuntary Infertility and Reproductive Technology

Involuntary infertility is wanting to conceive and bear a child but being physically unable to do so.
About 6.7 million, or 11 percent of women—and 6 percent of married women—between ages 15 and 44 are infertile.
Male infertility accounts for fertility difficulties in approximately one-third of couples seeking infertility treatment.

Infertility Services and Reproductive Technology

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) has become an accepted reproductive option.
ART methods are incredibly costly.
About 1/3 of ART procedures result in a live birth.

Reproductive Technology: Social and Ethical Issues

ART and Abortion
Several eggs are fertilized but only one is allowed to develop.
Inequality Issues
ART is usually not affordable for those with low incomes.
Who Is a Parent?
Potential for three mothers and/or two fathers.

Reproductive Technology: Social and Ethical Issues

What Kind of Child?
As technology advances, the potential to create a child with certain traits expands.
Commercialization of Reproduction
A general concern is that the new techniques, when performed for profit, commercialize reproduction.

Reproductive Technology: Making Personal Choices

Choosing to use reproductive technology depends on one’s values and circumstances.
Religious beliefs and cultural values influence decisions.
Treatment can be financially, physically, and emotionally draining.

Adoption

There are about 1.5 million children with at least one adoptive parent in U.S. households—about 7 percent of all children.
In terms of numbers, most adopted children are in nonHispanic white families.
Asian/Pacific Islander families have the highest rate of adoption relative to their population.

The Adoption Process

Public adoptions take place through licensed agencies; private adoptions are arranged between the adoptive parent(s) and the birth mother, usually through an attorney.
More and more adoptions are open—the birth and adoptive parents meet or have knowledge of each other.

The Adoption Process

Adoptive parents are sometimes concerned that birth parents might try to claim rights to their biological child.
Prospective adoptive parents also have concerns about the adjustment of adopted children.

Adoption of Racial/Ethnic Minority Children

34% of adopted children are of a different race, culture, or ethnicity than their adoptive parents.
The Multiethnic Placement Act (1994) and the Adoption and Safe Families Act (1997) prohibit delay or denial of adoption based on race, color, or national origin of the prospective adoptive parents.
Long-term studies suggest that transracial adoption has proven successful for most.

Adoption of Older Children and Children with Disabilities

Together with certain racial/ethnic minorities, children who are no longer infants and children with disabilities make up the large majority of youngsters now handled by adoption agencies.
The majority of these adoptions work out well.
Only about 2% end up being disrupted or dissolved adoptions (the child is returned before or after the adoption is final).
Some adoptees develop attachment disorder, defensively unwilling or unable to make future attachments.

International Adoptions

About 18,000 adoptions in 2004 were of children from outside the country. In 2010, 17% of adopted children were foreign-born.
About half of all children adopted from overseas by American parents were from Asia.
Affirming the biological mother’s consent is crucial in international adoptions.
International adoption can be a frustrating process for prospective adoptive parents.

International Adoptions

International adoptions can pose many of the same problems as the adoption of older children. But the vast majority are successful.
Those who adopt internationally are more apt to adopt a healthy infant, have a shorter wait, and encounter fewer limits in terms of age or marital status.