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Author: Pasta, David J.
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Miller, Warren B.
Bard, David E.
Pasta, David J.
Rodgers, Joseph Lee
Biodemographic Modeling of the Links Between Fertility Motivation and Fertility Outcomes in the NLSY79
Demography 47,2 (May 2010): 393-414.
Also: http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/demography/v047/47.2.miller.html
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Childbearing; Fertility; Gender Attitudes/Roles; Genetics; LISREL; Modeling; Modeling, Multilevel

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

In spite of long-held beliefs that traits related to reproductive success tend to become fixed by evolution with little or no genetic variation, there is now considerable evidence that the natural variation of fertility within populations is genetically influenced and that a portion of that influence is related to the motivational precursors to fertility. We conduct a two-stage analysis to examine these inferences in a time-ordered multivariate context. First, using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979, and LISREL analysis, we develop a structural equation model in which five hypothesized motivational precursors to fertility, measured in 1979-1982, predict both a child-timing and a child-number outcome, measured in 2002. Second, having chosen two time-ordered sequences of six variables from the SEM to represent our phenotypic models, we use Mx to conduct both univariate and multivariate behavioral genetic analyses with the selected variables. Our results indicate that one or more genes acting within a gene network have additive effects that operate through childnumber desires to affect both the timing of the next child born and the final number of children born, that one or more genes acting through a separate network may have additive effects operating through gender role attitudes to produce downstream effects on the two fertility outcomes, and that no genetic variance is associated with either child-timing intentions or educational intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Bibliography Citation
Miller, Warren B., David E. Bard, David J. Pasta and Joseph Lee Rodgers. "Biodemographic Modeling of the Links Between Fertility Motivation and Fertility Outcomes in the NLSY79." Demography 47,2 (May 2010): 393-414.
2. Miller, Warren B.
Rodgers, Joseph Lee
Pasta, David J.
The Fertility Motivations of Youth Predict Later Fertility Outcomes: A Prospective Analysis of National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Data
Biodemography and Social Biology 56,1 (January 2010): 1-23.
Also: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19485561003709131
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Keyword(s): Childbearing; Fertility; Gender Attitudes/Roles; Gender Differences; Modeling

We examine how the motivational sequence that leads to childbearing predicts fertility outcomes across reproductive careers. Using a motivational traits-desires-intentions theoretical framework, we test a structural equation model using prospective male and female data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Specifically, we take motivational data collected during the 1979-1982 period, when the youths were in their teens and early twenties, to predict the timing of the next child born after 1982 and the total number of children born by 2002. Separate models were estimated for males and females but with equality constraints imposed unless relaxing these constraints improved the overall model fit. The results indicate substantial explanatory power of fertility motivations for both short-term and long-term fertility outcomes. They also reveal the effects of both gender role attitude and educational intentions on these outcomes. Although some gender differences in model pathways occurred, the primary hypothesized pathways were essentially the same across the genders. Two validity sub-studies support the soundness of the results. A third sub-study comparing the male and female models across the sample split on the basis of previous childbearing revealed a number of pattern differences within the four gender-by-previous childbearing groups. Several of the more robust of these pattern differences offer interesting insights and support the validity and usefulness of our theoretical framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Bibliography Citation
Miller, Warren B., Joseph Lee Rodgers and David J. Pasta. "The Fertility Motivations of Youth Predict Later Fertility Outcomes: A Prospective Analysis of National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Data." Biodemography and Social Biology 56,1 (January 2010): 1-23.