Childlessness among American women

Abstract

The rate of childlessness in the United States has increased over the last two decades. Changing or differential rates by different segments of society have important implications for society. Most previous studies have relied on unrepresentative opportunistic samples to identify those segments of society with lower or higher rates of childlessness. These types of samples may misestimate both the number of women planning to remain childless and the magnitude of the correlates of childlessness. The present study uses these previous studies to identify predictor variables, but tests their significance using a recent national representative sample of women in the United States, aged 20–44: Cycle III of the National Survey for Family Growth, collected in 1982. The most important demographic factors are marital status and fecundity status, followed by age, race or ethnicity, education of the respondent, labor force status, and region. Father's education and mother's education are slightly, but not significantly, related to childlessness. Contrary to findings from less representative samples, urban‐rural differences and religion are not related to childlessness.