Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

2-2022

Abstract

Why do some people have children earlier compared to others who delay reproduction? Drawing from an evolutionary, life history theory perspective, we posited that reproductive timing could be influenced by economic uncertainty and childhood socioeconomic status (SES). For individuals lower in childhood SES, economic uncertainty influenced the desire to reproduce earlier compared to individuals higher in childhood SES. Furthermore, the decision regarding reproductive timing was influenced by tradeoffs between earlier reproduction or furthering one's education or career. Overall, economic uncertainty appears to shift individuals into different life history strategies as a function of childhood SES, suggesting how ecological factors and early life environment can influence fertility-related decisions at the individual level and may contribute to the highly variable fertility patterns observed across countries.

Keywords

Economic uncertainty, Reproductive timing, Life history theory, Socioeconomic status

Discipline

Applied Behavior Analysis | Social Psychology | Social Psychology and Interaction

Research Areas

Psychology

Publication

Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology

Volume

3

First Page

1

Last Page

10

ISSN

2666-6227

Identifier

10.1016/j.cresp.2022.100040

Publisher

Elsevier

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2022.100040

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