Educational Differences in Completed Fertility: A Behavioral Genetic Study of Finnish Male and Female Twins

Despite the large body of research on educational differences in fertility, how genetic and environmental influences may contribute to educational differences in completed fertility is not well understood. This study examines the association between educational level and completed fertility in a sam...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Demography 2013-08, Vol.50 (4), p.1399-1420
Main Authors: Nisén, Jessica, Martikainen, Pekka, Kaprio, Jaakko, Silventoinen, Karri
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic achievement
Behavioral genetics
Children
Children & youth
Cohort Studies
Continuing education
Demography
Education
Educational Attainment
Educational Research
Educational Status
Environment
Environmental education
Families & family life
Family Characteristics
Female
Female fertility
Females
Fertility
FERTILITY AND PARENTHOOD
Finland
Genetics
Geography
Higher education
Humans
Influence
Level of education
Male
Males
Medicine/Public Health
Men
Middle Aged
Opportunity costs
Parity
Phenotypic traits
Population
Population Economics
Quantitative genetics
Reproduction
Reproductive Behavior - psychology
Sex Differences
Sex differentiation
Sex Factors
Social norms
Social Sciences
Sociology
Statistical analysis
Twin studies
Twins
Twins, Dizygotic - psychology
Twins, Monozygotic - psychology
Women
Womens education
Womens health
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Despite the large body of research on educational differences in fertility, how genetic and environmental influences may contribute to educational differences in completed fertility is not well understood. This study examines the association between educational level and completed fertility in a sample of Finnish male and female twins born between 1950 and 1957 with register-based fertility follow-up until 2009. The results show that poorly educated men and highly educated women are least likely to have any children and have lower completed fertility in general. Behavioral genetics analysis suggests that the association between education and having any children in both sexes is influenced by factors shared by co-twins and that these factors are genetic rather than common environmental. No evidence of a causal pathway between education and having any children independent of these shared influences is found. These findings suggest that familial factors may play a role in the process through which educational differences in completed fertility are formed.
ISSN:0070-3370
1533-7790
DOI:10.1007/s13524-012-0186-9