Living through a recession may delay motherhood -- permanently When the economy tanks, women have fewer babies. But what happens in the following years, when conditions improve? A massive new study suggests that for some U.S. women, living through a recession can mean they will never have children. In fact, the authors project that among women who were in their early 20s in 2008 -- early in the so-called Great Recession -- about 151,000 will forgo having any children as a result, at least by age 40. Overall, the lingering impact of that recession may ultimately mean some 427,000 fewer children being born over the course of a couple decades, the authors say. On a societal level these effects are small. The projected number of childless women is a tiny fraction of the 9 million women in that age group, 20-24. The drop-off in births isnt much for a nation that produces around 4 million babies a year. But the results still show a pretty profound effect on some womens lives, said study author Janet Currie, a health economist at Princeton University. Currie and colleague Hannes Schwandt present their analysis in a paper released Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Past studies have generally shown women cut back on having babies when unemployment rises. In fact, tough economic conditions including the Great Recession are blamed for a five-year drop in the number of babies born in the U.S., starting in 2007. The idea is that during such times, many couples feel they cant afford to start or add to a family. The births decline ended with a slight increase last year. For the new study, researchers used birth records and census data to track the reproductive histories up to age 40 for every woman born in the U.S. from 1961 to 1970. Thats about 18 million people. To look for an effect from the economy, researchers compared the timing of when babies were conceived to unemployment levels at that time. Only conceptions that led to live births could be tracked.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 22:56:05 +0000
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