Environmental attitudes and fertility desires among US adolescents from 2005-2019.

Objective: This Brief Report examines links between environmental attitudes and fertility desires over time in the U.S.

Background: To understand fertility decision making, it is important to identify factors that influence fertility desires.

Disparities in smoking during pregnancy by sexual orientation and race-ethnicity.

The intersection between sexual orientation and race-ethnicity is emerging as an important dynamic for health. Prior research indicates that sexual orientation can have very different health implications for White, Black, and Latina individuals and that these patterns are unpredictable. Here we use U.

Recent Trends in U.S. Childbearing Intentions.

The U.S. period total fertility rate has declined steadily since the Great Recession, reaching 1.

Racial Disparities in Emotional Well-Being during Pregnancy.

In light of persistent racial disparities in maternal and child health, it is important to understand the dynamics shaping outcomes for black mothers. We examine racial patterns in women's emotional well-being regarding pregnancy (i.e.

The Other Student Debt Crisis: How Borrowing to Pay for a Child's College Education Relates to Parents' Mental Health at Midlife.

Objectives: More parents are borrowing to help their children pay for college. These loans may be a source of financial stress and worry, which could influence parents' mental health. We determine whether child-related educational debt is associated with worse mental health among parents and if fathers are more sensitive to this debt than mothers, given potential gender differences in financial decision-making and relationships with adult children.

Sexual Orientation Concordance And (Un)Happiness About Births.

Context: A woman's happiness about a pregnancy and birth has implications for her child's health and her own well-being. Sexual orientation and, particularly, the extent of concordance across its dimensions (sexual identity, behavior and attraction) may be related to happiness about these events, but research on this relationship has been lacking.

Methods: Data on 5,744 pregnancies ending in births among women aged 15-44 in three waves of the National Survey of Family Growth (2006-2015) were examined.

Congruence across Sexual Orientation Dimensions and Risk for Unintended Pregnancy among Adult U.S. Women.

Objectives: To date, no studies have investigated whether sexual minority women (SMW) are more likely to experience unintended pregnancies compared with their heterosexual peers. The aim of this study was to explore whether adult SMW were more likely to have unintended pregnancies compared with heterosexual women, to examine the role of identity-attraction congruence in unintended pregnancy risk, and to evaluate possible mediators.

Methods: Data on pregnancies to women ages 18 to 44 were drawn from the 2006 through 2013 National Survey of Family Growth (n = 25,403).

Extending the Intergenerational Stake Hypothesis: Evidence of an Intraindividual Stake and Implications for Well-Being.

The intergenerational stake hypothesis suggests that parents are more invested in their children and experience better quality parent-child ties than do their children. In this study the authors examined variation in reports of relationship quality regarding parents and children intraindividually (do people report better quality ties with their children than with their parents?) and whether within-person variations have implications for well-being. Participants age 40-60 (N = 633) reported on their relationship quality (importance, positive and negative quality) with their parents and adult children.

White-Hispanic differences in meeting lifetime fertility intentions in the U.S.

Background: Hispanics in the U.S. have higher fertility than non-Hispanic Whites but it is not clear why this difference exists nor whether fertility levels reflect the preferences of individuals in these groups.

The gap between births intended and births achieved in 22 European countries, 2004-07.

Using data from the 2004 and 2007 waves of the European Social Survey (ESS), we find that for every 100 births intended, about 60 births occur, on average, across 22 countries. This shortfall in fertility masks substantial heterogeneity between subgroups within the populations surveyed. Motherhood status, age, partnership status, and the strength of fertility intentions moderate the relationship between women's childbearing plans and births measured at the country level.

Parental support during young adulthood: Why does assistance decline with age?

Previous research has found that financial transfers from parents to young adult children decline as children age and that age is one of the strongest predictors of support. Using data collected from young adults (ages 18 to 34) and their parents (ages 40 to 60; N=536 parent-child dyads), we explore the possibility that the relationship between age and financial support is mediated by offspring needs, acquisition of adult roles, or geographical and emotional closeness. We find that age-related declines in offspring's needs help to explain why financial support falls with age.

Are Hispanic Women Happier About Unintended Births?

Reducing unintended pregnancies - particularly among Hispanic and Black women, who have relatively high rates - is a key public health goal in the United States. However, descriptive literature has suggested that Hispanic women are happier about these pregnancies compared with White and Black women, which could mean that there is variation across groups in the consequences of the resulting births. The purpose of this study was to examine variations in happiness about unintended births by race-ethnicity and to assess possible explanations for these differences.

Hispanic Familism Reconsidered: Ethnic Differences in the Perceived Value of Children and Fertility Intentions.

Familism has been described as a cultural trait that might explain why the fertility of Hispanic women remains higher than non-Hispanic White women. Still, few studies have analyzed group differences in childbearing attitudes. This paper focuses on two dimensions of childbearing orientation: social value of children and fertility intentions.

Who Lacks Support and Why? An Examination of Mothers' Personal Safety Nets.

We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 12,140 person-waves) to identify characteristics associated with mothers' having or lacking "personal safety net" support from family and friends. We focus on characteristics that are likely to increase the importance of having support available but may also interfere with the maintenance of supportive ties: poverty, poor physical and mental health, and challenging child rearing responsibilities. By capitalizing on distinctions among these types of personal disadvantages and among types of personal safety nets (financial, housing, child care, and emotional), we help to explain why personal disadvantages are associated with weaker support.