BACKGROUND This study explores the long-term experience of involuntary childlessness among 14 Swedish women 20 years after their infertility treatment. METHODS In-depth interviews were conducted. RESULTS The childlessness had had a strong impact on all the women's lives and was for all a major life theme. The effects were experienced both on a personal level and on interpersonal and social ...

Many studies have documented a negative association between macroeconomic indicators and fertility in times of economic crisis. These studies are based on research designs that do not allow for excluding that the observed association is driven by confounders. The aim of the present paper is to estimate the causal effect of the Great Recession on cohorts’ childlessness in the United States. We a...

While infertility is a global challenge for millions of couples, low income countries have particularly high rates, of up to 30%. Infertility in these contexts is not limited to its clinical definition but is a socially constructed notion with varying definitions. In highly pronatalistic and patriarchal societies like Pakistan, women bear the brunt of the social, emotional and physical conseque...

The author explores the phenomenon of voluntary childlessness in Poland. She presents results her own research as part a broader analysis issue intentional childlessness. focus article is on reasons why men do not take parental role. first covers socio-cultural context into childlessness, while second discusses qualitative conducted using, among other things, group and in-depth interviews with ...

In a former study based on US census data, we found that educational homogamy is common and reduces the odds to remain childless. This study takes the next step and examines the prevalence of educational homogamy and its association with childlessness as well as the number of children on a worldwide basis. We analyzed census data from 41 different countries encompassing a total of 2,179,736 mar...

During the twentieth century, trends in childlessness varied strongly across European countries while educational attainment grew continuously across them. Using census and large-scale survey data from 13 European countries, we investigated the relationship between these two factors among women born between 1916 and 1965. Up to the 1940 birth cohort, the share of women childless at age 40+ decr...

Using data from the first wave of the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (NKPS) for 2867 women and 2195 men aged 40 to 79, this study examines to what extent educational, employment and marital pathways shape the likelihood of remaining childless, and whether these pathways are gendered. The findings indicate that women and men have distinctive pathways into childlessness. Educational attainment i...