Life-Course Trajectories of Childless Women: Country-Specific or Universal?
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ABSTRACT: Supplementary information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10680-022-09624-5.
SUBMITTER: Tocchioni V
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9726798 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Life-Course Trajectories of Childless Women: Country-Specific or Universal?
Tocchioni Valentina V Rybińska Anna A Mynarska Monika M Matysiak Anna A Vignoli Daniele D
European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie 20220609 5
While existing research has documented complexities in biographies of childless women, few studies to date have systematically examined the life-course pathways of the childless from a comparative, cross-country perspective. In this paper, we analyse biographies of childless women in four countries-Germany, Italy, Poland, and the United States-in order to investigate whether pathways into childlessness are country-specific or commonly shared across institutional, cultural, and geographical setti ...[more]
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Project description:Background and aimsAlcohol consumption changes markedly over the life course, with important implications for health and social development. Assessment of these patterns often relies on cross-sectional data, which cannot fully capture how individuals' drinking changes as they age. This study used data from 18 waves of a general population panel survey to measure drinking trajectories over the life course in Australia.Design and settingLongitudinal survey data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey between 2001 and 2018.ParticipantsA total of 20 593 individuals ages 15 or above in two samples assessing quantity-frequency (n = 20 569, 52.0% female) and risky single occasion drinking (RSOD), respectively, (n = 17 340, 52.5% female), interviewed as part of HILDA.MeasurementsUsual quantity of alcohol consumed per drinking occasion; frequency of drinking occasions per week; average daily consumption, calculated by combining reported usual quantity and frequency; and average reported frequency of RSOD per week.FindingsMultilevel, mixed effects models run with fractional polynomial terms found similar male and female alcohol consumption trajectories for quantity-frequency and RSOD measures. Usual quantity of alcohol consumed per drinking occasion (5.4 drinks for men, 3.8 for women) and RSOD frequency (0.56 occasions/week for men, 0.38 for women) peaked in young adulthood, whereas frequency of drinking occasions (2.5 occasions/week for men, 1.7 for women) peaked in middle age. Middle-age drinkers had the highest average daily consumption of alcohol (1.4 drinks/day for 54-year-old men, 0.6 drinks for 57-year-old women) and engaged in RSOD slightly less than young adults.ConclusionsAlcohol consumption in Australia appears to vary substantially over the life course, with usual quantity per drinking occasion and frequency of risky single occasion drinking peaking during early adulthood and average daily consumption and frequency of consumption peaking in middle age.
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Project description:IntroductionCondomless anal intercourse (AI) confers a far greater likelihood of HIV transmission than condomless vaginal intercourse (VI). However, little is known about AI practice over the life course of women, to what extent AI practice is condom-protected, and whether it is associated with other HIV risk behaviors. We aim to describe longitudinal AI practice among HIV-seronegative women and to identify subgroups with distinct trajectories of AI practice.MethodsUsing data from the Women's Interagency HIV Study, an observational cohort of US women with or at risk for HIV, we described AI practice among HIV-seronegative participants. Group-based trajectory modeling was used to identify distinct AI trajectories. We used multinomial regression to examine associations between baseline characteristics and trajectory group membership.ResultsA third of the 1,085 women in our sample reported any AI over follow-up (median follow-up = 14 years). AI decreased more sharply with age compared to VI. Consistent condom use during AI was low: twice the proportion of women never reported using condoms consistently during AI compared to during VI. 5 trajectory groups were identified: AI & VI persistors (N = 75) practiced AI and VI consistently over follow-up (AI & VI desistors (N = 169) tended to practice AI and VI when young only, while VI persistors (N = 549), VI desistors (N = 167), and AI & VI inactives (N = 125) reported varying levels of VI practice, but little AI. AI & VI persistors reported multiple male partners and exchange sex at more visits than other groups. Women who identified as bisexual/lesbian (vs heterosexual), who had ever experienced physical and sexual violence (vs never), and/or who reported above the median number of lifetime male sex partners (vs median or below) had approximately twice the odds of being AI & VI persistors than being VI persistors.ConclusionsWe identified a small subgroup of women who practice AI and report inconsistent condom use along with other risk behaviors throughout the life course; they may therefore particularly benefit from ongoing access to HIV prevention services including pre-exposure prophylaxis. Owen BN, Baggaley RF, Maheu-Giroux M, et al. Patterns and Trajectories of Anal Intercourse Practice Over the Life Course Among US Women at Risk of HIV. J Sex Med 2020;17:1629-1642.
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Project description:In this paper we address the question why childless women and men aged 35 years and older, who originally were considering having children, voluntarily gave up on having children. We hypothesise that this adjustment could be attributed to five mechanisms: adaptation to a lifestyle without children; resignation because of severe hindrances to having children; approaching the end of the fecund period; perceiving a low degree of social influence from significant others to have children; and a low degree of personal persistence in pursuing life goals. We analyse data from the first six waves of the German Family Panel (Pairfam) and employ multinomial logistic regression models. As the dependent variable we distinguished four types of sequences over the observation period: "permanently considering having children", "given up on having children", "switching", and "permanently not considering having children". Being female, being not employed, and having low scores on the emotional autonomy scale increased the likelihood of giving up on having children, while anticipating positive consequences of parenthood and perceiving influence from parents to have a child decreased it. The results show that all mechanisms addressed by the hypotheses were at work to a certain extent. In particular, the integration of personality factors and the importance of other life goals beyond parenthood provided valuable insights into the reasons for giving up on having children. Future research in this field should focus more than was possible in our study on societal age norms and the role of partners in giving up on having children.
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