Women are having fewer children today in an effort to provide the very best resources with which to raise them, say researchers from the University of Sheffield, UK. Economics plays a large role in fertility, and can affect bloodlines for generations to come.

 

Researchers Duncan Gillespie, Dr. Virpi Lummaa and Dr. Andrew Russell studied 18^th and 19^th century Finnish church records, tracing the family histories of 437 women, their 2888 children, and 6470 grandchildren. Results indicated that fertility of children from poorer families was constrained, compared with children of wealthier families, whose fertility was not constrained.

 

Today’s families are not following that pattern, the research indicates. While in the past, large wealthy families provided big broods as a sign of access to resources, today’s wealthy families are choosing to have fewer children in order to offer them the best resources possible. Desire for their children to have a better education and a lucrative career, tends to be the main reason the wealthy are having fewer children, demonstrating a “quality over quantity” mentality.

 

"Before modern day birth control high fertility was a sign of wealth and families would therefore strive to have large numbers of children,” Gillespie said in a public statement. “However for poor mothers, having more children did not always lead to more grandchildren, due to economic constraints on their children's fertility.”

 

The effect is exaggerated today, says the researcher. "In today's society, this has gone even further with wealthy families choosing to invest in fewer children as well.” Gillespie explained. “However, this trade-off between offspring quantity and quality has come full circle in that fewer children will ultimately lead to smaller families. This could help explain the decline in fertility in modern society." Of course, having fewer children also means having fewer grandchildren, so a family’s decisions today can make for fewer limbs on the family tree.

Britons have long lamented the so-called “baby shortage” which has plagued the UK and other industrialized, wealthy nations. A 2006 article in The Observer UK discussed the economic ramifications of a population which is failing to renew itself at the desired rate of 2.1 children per couple—a number which allows renewal of the death of two parents and allows the extra .1 for accidental child mortalities (“How the baby shortage threatens our future,” by Gaby Hinsliff and Lorna Martin, Sunday February 19, 2006).

Citing the increased economic pressures which make it difficult to set aside career goals and sacrifice finances to raise children, the article acknowledges that “the problems of juggling motherhood and a career are becoming intolerable.” Working mothers tend to make less money, be less attractive prospects for potential employers, and experience the daily stress of managing work and family.

 

However, women who make it up the corporate ladder may actually become more desirable employees, due to their ability to afford day care and other help for their children, allowing them to devote themselves to the company more completely. Statistics cited by The Observer UK indicate that by the year 2020, there will be 107,000 fewer children in the country than in 2006, and that as of that time, the average cost of raising a child up to age 17 was £ 65,000.

 

How do trends abroad translate over here? “Decades ago, in this country, couples had large families because they needed children’s help in tending the farm. There was also a high death rate among children. Going back just to the 50s, the ideal was ‘a boy for you and a girl for me,’” social psychologist Susan Newman, Ph.D., explains.

 

Newman, author of Parenting an Only Child, The Joys and Challenges of Raising Your One and Only and Little Things Long Remembered: Making Your Children Feel Special Every Day lists several reasons for the decline in modern fertility. “Families have changed dramatically—high divorce rates leave little time for a second or third child; women are having their children later, again, often feeling too old to have more; the high cost of raising and educating a children today (often requiring both parents work), the terrible maternity leave policies and uncertain child care in this country, and an uptick in secondary infertility are among the reasons for the decline in the large family,” Newman tells demo dirt.

 

Newman says the concept of “quality over quantity” does not quite tell the whole story. “It is not necessarily emphasizing quality over quantity, although admittedly there are some folks who feel that way, but a confluence of many factors,” she says.

 

“Sure, in our highly competitive world of parenting today, there are parents who wish to give their children every advantage, but I believe the factors and realities mentioned above, are definitely at play in the family size decision,” Newman, whose list of works and articles can be found at www.susannewmanphd.com, contends.