Mothers’ parenting behaviours, strain, enjoyment and subsequent childbearing

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

October 31, 2024

Summary:

Modern parenting is both emotionally costly and rewarding. It is also more intensive than before and requires significant time and effort, particularly from mothers. Emotional costs and benefits of children are important to fertility decisions, and they may be linked with a mother’s parenting behaviours. Using a sample of 4402 partnered first-time mothers from the UK Household Longitudinal Study waves 1 to 9 (2009–2018), this study investigated the association between mothers’ parenting behaviours, changes in the levels of reported strain or enjoyment of everyday activities and second-birth transition. A decline in enjoyment formed a negative association with second-birth risk. The frequency of participation in dinner with the child and in leisure activities with the child formed significant associations with second-birth risk but only for selected segments of the population. We discuss the possible underlying mechanisms of these associations and the socioeconomic differences within them.

Published in

Journal of Family Issues

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X241257235

ISSN

0192513

Subjects

Notes

Online Early

#578419

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