How tall am I again? A longitudinal analysis of the reliability of self-reported height.

Self-reported height measures are increasingly being included in large-scale surveys in order to measure BMI. There have been concerns about the validity of self-reported measures but there remains little understanding of why respondents may not give accurate height reports. We examine whether a lack of knowledge could be a contributing factor, by investigating the reliability of self-reported height over time and across countries.

Projecting the Contribution of Assisted Reproductive Technology to Completed Cohort Fertility.

Unlabelled: Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is increasingly influencing the fertility trends of high-income countries characterized by a pattern of delayed childbearing. However, research on the impact of ART on completed fertility is limited and the extent to which delayed births are realized later in life through ART is not well understood. This study uses data from Australian fertility clinics and national birth registries to project the contribution of ART for cohorts of women that have not yet completed their reproductive life and estimate the role played by ART in the fertility 'recuperation' process.

Declining realisation of reproductive intentions with age.

Study Question: What is the likelihood of having a child within 4 years for men and women with strong short-term reproductive intentions, and how is it affected by age?

Summary Answer: For women, the likelihood of realising reproductive intentions decreased steeply from age 35: the effect of age was weak and not significant for men.

What Is Known Already: Men and women are postponing childbearing until later ages. For women, this trend is associated with a higher risk that childbearing plans will not be realised due to increased levels of infertility and pregnancy complications.

High and growing disapproval of sex-selection technology in Australia.

Background: In Australia, the National Health and Medical Research Council has banned the use of assisted reproductive technology for social sex selection, but notes "there is limited research into the question of whether Australians support the use of sex selection for non-medical purposes". This paper investigates Australian attitudes to sex-selection technology by different means (IVF, abortion, and a hypothetical pill), for different reasons (medical, family balancing, any reason), and by differing respondent characteristics (age, sex, education and religiosity).

Methods: In 2007 and 2016, the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes (AuSSA) collected data on the attitudes of Australian adults to sex selection through IVF, abortion, and a hypothetical pill.

Childbearing desires of childless men and women: when are goals adjusted?

This paper examines the concept of desired future fertility. Childbearing desires are often conceptualized in the literature as representing an individual's ideal future fertility where there are no constraints or obstacles to achieve the desired outcome. As such, childbearing desires, unlike fertility intentions, are thought to be relatively unaffected by changing life circumstances.

Childbearing across partnerships in Australia, the United States, Norway, and Sweden.

This article compares mothers' experience of having children with more than one partner in two liberal welfare regimes (the United States and Australia) and two social democratic regimes (Sweden and Norway). We use survey-based union and birth histories in Australia and the United States and data from national population registers in Norway and Sweden to estimate the likelihood of experiencing childbearing across partnerships at any point in the childbearing career. We find that births with new partners constitute a substantial proportion of all births in each country we study.

Australian attitudes toward sex-selection technology.

Previous research based on analysis of fertility behavior and expressed preferences shows that many Australian parents want both a son and a daughter. However, most respondents to a representative survey of Australians did not approve of IVF or abortion for sex-selection purposes, and most did not think a hypothetical blue or pink pill to select sex of a child should be legal.

Using a reproductive life course approach to understand contraceptive method use in Australia.

This paper examines contraceptive method use at different stages of the reproductive life course. Previous research on contraceptive practice in developed countries typically applies age as a proxy for reproductive history. While age is an essential and useful life course measure for understanding contraceptive use, investigations of contraceptive practice should also consider parity and fertility intentions, as they may be more accurate measures of reproductive life course stage.

Parental preference for sons and daughters in a Western industrial setting: evidence and implications.

This paper considers whether sex composition of existing children in Australian families is an important factor in parity progression. Using census data from 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001, women are linked with their co-resident children, allowing investigation of family sex composition and its changing impact over time on the propensity to have another child. The study finds that parents are much more likely to have a third and fourth birth if existing children are all of the same sex, indicating a strong preference for children of both sexes.