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Author: Hayford, Sarah R.
Resulting in 5 citations.
1. Hayford, Sarah R.
Second Births and Employment Around the First Birth: A Focused Test of Preference Theory
Presented: Boston MA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, July 2008
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Employment; Fertility; First Birth; Maternal Employment

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Extensive research has established a negative relationship between women’s employment and their fertility, but has not come to a conclusion about the causal nature of this relationship. In particular, it is not clear how economic and practical constraints interact with women’s own desires for employment and for children. Preference theory (Hakim 2000, 2003) proposes that women’s preferences for work or for family orientation determine both employment and fertility behavior largely independently of economic and social factors. In this analysis, I use longitudinal data on work and fertility intentions, fertility behavior, and labor force participation from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 cohort to test predictions generated by preference theory. I focus on the employment-fertility relationship at a particular moment in women’s family formation trajectory, the time after the first birth. I find only weak support for preference theory.
Bibliography Citation
Hayford, Sarah R. "Second Births and Employment Around the First Birth: A Focused Test of Preference Theory." Presented: Boston MA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, July 2008.
2. Hayford, Sarah R.
The Evolution of Fertility Expectations Over the Life Course
Demography 46,4 (November 2009): 765-783.
Also: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dem/summary/v046/46.4.hayford.html
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Family Formation; Family Size; Fertility; Growth Curves; Life Course

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

In low-fertility contexts, how many children people have is largely a product of how many children they want. However, the social, institutional, and individual factors that influence how many children people want are not well understood. In particular, there is scant evidence about how fertility expectations change over the life course. This article provides an empirical description of changes in women's expected fertility over the entire span of childbearing years. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 cohort, group-based trajectory analysis illuminates common patterns in the evolution of fertility intentions and identifies individual characteristics associated with these patterns. Factors related to family formation, such as marriage and whether a woman has a child at an early age, are found to be the most consistent correlates of patterns of change in expected family size.
Bibliography Citation
Hayford, Sarah R. "The Evolution of Fertility Expectations Over the Life Course." Demography 46,4 (November 2009): 765-783.
3. Nitsche, Natalie
Hayford, Sarah R.
Preferences, Partners, and Parenthood: Linking Early Fertility Desires, Marriage Timing, and Achieved Fertility
Demography published online (12 November 2020): DOI: 10.1007/s13524-020-00927-y.
Also: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13524-020-00927-y
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Age at First Marriage; Educational Attainment; Family Size; Fertility; Motherhood; Parenthood

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

In the United States, underachieving fertility desires is more common among women with higher levels of education and those who delay first marriage beyond their mid-20s. However, the relationship between these patterns, and particularly the degree to which marriage postponement explains lower fertility among the highly educated, is not well understood. We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort to analyze differences in parenthood and achieved parity for men and women, focusing on the role of marriage timing in achieving fertility goals over the life course. We expand on previous research by distinguishing between entry into parenthood and average parity among parents as pathways to underachieving, by considering variation in the impact of marriage timing by education and by stage of the life course, and by comparing results for men and women. We find that women with a bachelor's degree who desired three or more children are less likely to become mothers relative to women with the same desired family size who did not attend college. Conditional on becoming mothers, however, women with at least a bachelor's degree do not have lower completed family size. No comparable fatherhood difference by desired family size is present. Postponing marriage beyond age 30 is associated with lower proportions of parenthood but not with lower parity among parents. Age patterns are similar for women and men, pointing at social rather than biological factors driving the underachievement of fertility goals.
Bibliography Citation
Nitsche, Natalie and Sarah R. Hayford. "Preferences, Partners, and Parenthood: Linking Early Fertility Desires, Marriage Timing, and Achieved Fertility." Demography published online (12 November 2020): DOI: 10.1007/s13524-020-00927-y.
4. Nitsche, Natalie
Hayford, Sarah R.
Preferences, Partners, and Parenthood: Linking Early Fertility Desires, Union Formation Timing, and Achieved Fertility
Presented: Denver CO, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2018
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Age at First Marriage; Educational Attainment; Fertility; Gender Differences; Motherhood

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Our paper addresses education and gender differences in the realization of early-life fertility desires, focusing on the role of union formation timing in achieving fertility goals over the life course. In particular, we investigate the effect of first union-postponement on realizing higher parity fertility desires at age 43. While it is known that 'underachieving' occurs more often among the higher educated and among those who postpone first marriage and parenthood beyond age 25, it is not yet well understood how the effect of union formation timing on fertility may differ by desired number of children and educational attainment. Using data from the NLSY79, first findings indicate a delay of first marriage and lower incidences of motherhood among college educated women desiring three or more compared to those desiring two children. Also, among the college educated, marrying after age 30 is associated with a sharp decline in motherhood, but not fatherhood. Note: A similar paper was also presented at Philadelphia PA, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2018.
Bibliography Citation
Nitsche, Natalie and Sarah R. Hayford. "Preferences, Partners, and Parenthood: Linking Early Fertility Desires, Union Formation Timing, and Achieved Fertility." Presented: Denver CO, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, April 2018.
5. Nitsche, Natalie
Hayford, Sarah R.
The Impact of Early Fertility Desires on Union Formation and Timing
Presented: Washington DC, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, March-April 2016
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Cohabitation; Family Formation; Fertility; Marriage

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

While it is well known that early fertility desires affect childbearing behavior, it is not yet understood whether these early preferences may also affect women's union formation behavior. Drawing on data from the NLSY79, our study extends the literature by investigating whether the desired number of children during early adulthood is linked to whether and when women form stable unions over the course of their lives. We furthermore investigate whether this preference-behavior relationship varies across educational attainment and may be one missing link to understanding educational differentials in family formation behavior. First findings indeed show a significant relationship between these early desires and subsequent marriage behavior. Women who desire to remain childless marry less often, and significantly later than their counterparts who desire to become mothers.
Bibliography Citation
Nitsche, Natalie and Sarah R. Hayford. "The Impact of Early Fertility Desires on Union Formation and Timing." Presented: Washington DC, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, March-April 2016.