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Title: Socioeconomic Status, Education, and Reproduction in Modern Women: An Evolutionary Perspective
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2010
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Abstract: Although associations between status or resources and reproduction are positive in premodern societiesand also in men in modern societies, in modern women the associations are typically negative. We investigatedhow the association between socioeconomic status and reproductive output varies with the source of status and resources,the womans education, and her age at reproductive onset (proxied by age at marriage). By using a large sample ofUS women, we examined the association between a womans reproductive output and her own and her husbandsincome and education. Education, income, and age at marriage are negatively associated with a womans number ofchildren and increase her chances of childlessness. Among the most highly educated two-thirds of the sample of women,husbands income predicts the number of children. The association between a womans number of children and her husbandsincome turns from positive to negative when her education and age at marriage is low (even though her meanoffspring number rises at the same time). The association between a womans own income and her number of childrenis negative, regardless of education. Rather than maximizing the offspring number, these modern women seem to adjustinvestment in children based on their family size and resource availability. Striving for resources seems to be part of amodern female reproductive strategybut, owing to costs of resource acquisition, especially higher education, it maylead to lower birthrates: a possible evolutionary explanation of the demographic transition, and a complement to thehuman capital theory of net reproductive output. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 00:0000, 2010.
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Authors: Fieder, Martin; Huber, Susanne; Bookstein, Fred L.
Periodical (Full): American Journal of Human Biology
Issue: 5
Volume: 22
Pages: 578-587
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Education, Fertility and Mortality, Other
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