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Employment resilience and fertility intentions: An analysis of the perceived capacity to overcome loss of employment and fertility intentions in Sweden

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posted on 2024-07-15, 12:25 authored by Oskar Lindström

In the wake of declining fertility rates observed across Western countries following the Great Recession, fertility research has increasingly focused on subjective dimensions of economic uncertainty in attempting to explain contemporary fertility dynamics. While the literature has primarily examined subjective economic uncertainty in terms of perceived employment stability, recent arguments have been made that resilience toward employment loss might have more salient effects on fertility intentions. Following these arguments, this study aims to provide further insight into the current fertility decline in Sweden by examining the relationship between perceived resilience and fertility intentions among Swedish childless couples. Utilizing cross-sectional data from the Swedish Generations and Gender Survey 2021, logistic regression is employed to examine the association between resilience and fertility intentions and how it varies across sociodemographic groups and individual perceptions of employment stability and risk attitudes. The results indicate that being unsure regarding one’s resilience is associated with lower fertility intentions for men, with no similar association found for women. This effect of uncertainty regarding one’s resilience is further seemingly isolated to foreign-born individuals. Although clear associations between low resilience and fertility intentions are not evident overall, they appear to be observed among the economically more vulnerable. The findings appear to reflect a difference in perceived risks and uncertainty, where it is more the inability to foresee future risks than the expected risk as such that inhibits the formation of fertility plans for individuals. Although the results suggest that resilience may play a role in the Swedish fertility decline, the limited sample and cross-sectional nature of the data preclude definitive conclusions regarding the extent of this role.

History

ISSN

2002-617X

Original title

Employment resilience and fertility intentions: An analysis of the perceived capacity to overcome loss of employment and fertility intentions in Sweden

Original language

  • English

Publication date

2024-07-15

access_level

  • public

access_condition

  • PUBLIC