The Relationship between Age at First Birth and Final Family Size: Does It Depend on Women ´s Education?

Cristina Suero , University of Vienna

Fertility postponement is considered a major underlying cause of fertility decline. Since women's reproductive period is relatively short, the later a woman starts having children, the less time she has to achieve her desired family size. Among the different causes of postponement, previous literature has stressed the difficulty to reach adequate economic and occupational stability to form a family. Women with tertiary education usually delay the age at first motherhood because of the longer time spent in education. However, these women may get higher labour stability and end up in their reproductive careers with a larger family size than those with lower educational attainment. I use the 2018 Spanish Fertility Survey to assess the effects of the postponement of the first child on the final number of children women achieve in Spain, an interesting case of study given the lowest-low fertility rates and the late age of entry into motherhood in the country. Using Poisson regression models and including interaction effects between age at first birth and educational attainment, I observe that late mothers end up in their reproductive careers with fewer children than those who start earlier. Nevertheless, this effect is not as strong among women with tertiary education, who can catch up. Preliminary results suggest that the higher labour stability higher educated women achieve does not mediate the relationship between age at first birth and final family size.

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 Presented in Session P1. Postercafe