Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Current Sociology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Klein, T.
Right arrow Articles by Eckhard, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Educational Differences, Value of Children and Fertility Outcomes in Germany

Thomas Klein

Heidelberg University of Education, Germany, Thomas.Klein{at}urz.uni-heidelberg.de

Jan Eckhard

Heidelberg University of Education, Germany, J.Eckhard{at}urz.uni-heidelberg.de

Referring to the dependence of income and occupational opportunities on education as well as to the lower compatibility between career and parenthood for women, educational differences of family foundation rates are being interpreted as an expression of different opportunity costs by many researchers (opportunity cost hypothesis). This hypothesis is discussed and analysed in this article for the German case drawing on the German Family Survey (Familiensurvey). The analysis considers two aspects of fertility motivation: on the one hand, it refers to educational level and the perceived value of children for (potential) parents; on the other, it examines the behavioural relevance of these fertility motivations. The empirical results from national representative longitudinal data question the opportunity cost hypothesis. Neither the perception of the incompatibility between career and motherhood nor its effect on the desire to become a parent are stronger for more highly educated women than for women with a lower formal educational level. Moreover, the article provides empirical evidence that the well-known educational differentiation of family formation rates is associated with child-related utility expectations, such as stimulation and affect.

Key Words: fertility • parenthood • value of children

Current Sociology, Vol. 55, No. 4, 505-525 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0011392107077636
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?