The Role of Family Orientations in Shaping the Effect of Fertility on Subjective Well-being: A Propensity Score Matching Approach

This article investigates whether and how having a child impacts an individual's subjective well-being, while taking into account heterogeneity in family attitudes. People with different family orientations have different values, gender attitudes, preferences toward career and family, and expec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Demography 2016-08, Vol.53 (4), p.955-978
Main Authors: Balbo, Nicoletta, Arpino, Bruno
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Attitudes
Career Choice
Careers
Childbirth
Childbirth & labor
Childlessness
Children
Children & youth
Decisions
Demography
Families & family life
Family Characteristics
Female
Fertility
FERTILITY AND REPRODUCTION
Fertility rates
Gender
Gender differences
Gender Identity
Gender roles
Geography
Happiness
Health Status
Heterogeneity
Humans
Life satisfaction
Male
Matching
Medicine/Public Health
Men
Middle Aged
Mothers
Parents
Parents & parenting
Personal Satisfaction
Population Economics
Propensity Score
Psychological factors
Quality of life
Sex differences
Sex Factors
Social Sciences
Socioeconomic Factors
Sociology
Studies
Time Factors
United Kingdom
Well being
Wellbeing
Women
Working women
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Summary:This article investigates whether and how having a child impacts an individual's subjective well-being, while taking into account heterogeneity in family attitudes. People with different family orientations have different values, gender attitudes, preferences toward career and family, and expectations about how childbearing can affect their subjective well-being. These differences impact fertility decisions and the effect of parenthood on an individual's life satisfaction. We define three groups of people based on their family orientations: Traditional, Mixed, and Modern. Applying propensity score matching on longitudinal data (British Household Panel Survey), we create groups of individuals with very similar socioeconomic characteristics and family orientations before childbearing. We then compare those who have one child with those who are childless, and those who have two children with those who have only one child. We show that parents are significantly more satisfied than nonparents, and this effect is stronger among men than among women. For men, we do not find significant differences across family orientations groups in the effect of the birth of the first child on life satisfaction. Among women, only Traditional mothers seem to be more satisfied than their childless counterparts. Women who have a second child are never more satisfied than those who have only one child, regardless of their family orientations. Traditional and Mixed men experience a gain in life satisfaction when they have a second child, but this effect is not found for Modern men.
ISSN:0070-3370
1533-7790
DOI:10.1007/s13524-016-0480-z