Childbearing impeded education more than education impeded childbearing among Norwegian women.

ABSTRACT: In most societies, women at age 39 with higher levels of education have fewer children. To understand this association, we investigated the effects of childbearing on educational attainment and the effects of education on fertility in the 1964 birth cohort of Norwegian women. Using detailed annual data from ages 17 to 39, we estimated the probabilities of an additional birth, a change in educational level, and enrollment in the coming year, conditional on fertility history, educational level, and enrollment history at the beginning of each year. A simple model reproduced a declining gradient of children ever born with increasing educational level at age 39. When a counterfactual simulation assumed no effects of childbearing on educational progression or enrollment (without changing the est

SUBMITTER: Cohen JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3141966 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature