Families And Households - Childbearing Flashcards
(26 cards)
Total fertility rate
The number of children who would be born per women (or per 1,000 women) if they were to pass through the childbearing years bearing children according to a current schedule of age-specific fertility rates.
General fertility rate
The total number of live births per 1,000 women of reproductive age (15-49) in a population per year.
Birth rate
The number of live births per thousand of population per year.
Average family size
Defined in terms of the number of children in the household.
Average household size
Defined by the number of people residing in a single residence.
TFR 1900-2012
1900 - 4.3
2012 - 1.83
GFR - 1900 - 2012
1900 - 115:1000
2012 - 64:1000
Birth rate - 1900 - 2012
1900 - 28:1000
2012 - 12:1000
Family size 1900 - 2012
1900 - 6
2012 - 1.7
Household size - 1900 - 2012
1900 - 4.6
2012 - 2.4
Reasons for trends
- Contraception
- Education
- Role of women
- Infant mortality rate
- Geographic mobility
- Changing values
- Economic factors
Contraception
Safer, legal and effective methods of contraception have become available and allowed women and couples to control the number of children they have and when they decided to have them.
Education
Since introducing compulsory education children have gone from being an economic asset to an economic burden.
Whereas in the 1900s children would be working from a very young age children today are in compulsory education until 18 and parents today can be supporting their children well into their 20s.
Role of women
Many women now want to have a career of their own rather than care for a larger family, compared to before when women’s role was to do so.
Also by putting her career first a women will leave having children till later in life, the average age of first child is currently 30 meaning they have less time to have more children.
Infant mortality rate
Fewer people die in childhood than ever before which means fewer families are compensating by having more children in hopes that 1 or 2 will survive infancy.
In 1900 22.5% of live births would die before their 5th birthday whereas in 2015 it was 0.5%
Geographical mobility
Modern labour force needs to be very mobile.
An incentive for smaller families because it makes it easier to pack up and move elsewhere.
Changing values
Parenthood is a lifelong, stressful commitment, many couples are now deciding that they do not want children whereas before this would have been a bad thing it is now acceptable in society.
Economic factors
The cost of raising a child is rising every year with the current estimate at around £235,000 from birth to 18 and rising to £271,000 if going to 21 and including university education.
This can influence couples who choose to only ave 1 child as they cannot afford a second.
Impact of changing fertility rates
- Reduction in labour force.
- dependency ratio.
- Immigration.
- Growth of bean pole family.
- Voluntary childlessness
- Decrease in full time mothers.
Reduced labour force
Less people being born means gaps are showing in the labour force meaning that there aren’t people to fill gaps left by those retiring.
Dependency ratio
Dependency ratio is an age-population ratio of those typically not in the labour force and those typically in the labour force.
Fewer children being born means the ratio becomes unbalanced due to aging populations.
Immigration
Immigration becomes more important with declining birth rates as this will fill gaps in the labour market.
Growth of bean pole family
Brannon - growth of bean pole family into one of the more dominant family types as generations are living longer but having fewer members in each generation.
Voluntary childlessness
Family policy studies centre found that in 2000 1 in 5 women aged 40 chose not to have children compared to 1 in 10 in 1980.
Hakim - direct link to the availability of contraception.
Gillespie - suggests the push/pull idea where women feel the pull factor as greater freedom and better relationships where as the push factor of seeing parenthood as conflicting with careers and leisure activities.
