Fertility studies using quantitative methods often present individuals or couples as autonomous decision-makers who make deliberate fertility decisions and have a fairly clear and consistent preference for family size and the timing of parenthood. This study aimed to explore the extent this view reflects experiences by examining how individuals talked about and made sense of parenthood and family. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with thirteen women and twelve men residing in Scotland between February 2009 and May 2010. Respondents were first asked to respond to vignettes of fertility scenarios, designed to elicit discussions around the limits to reproductive autonomy. Using a life grid, respondents were also asked to reflect on their experiences and intentions around the issue of parenthood and family. During the interviews, respondents spoke about the reasons for and against having children, their preferences for and expectations of family size, the timing of parenthood and communicating with their partners in relation to parenthood. Respondents' accounts were analysed reflexively, focusing on the references they drew upon when constructing their accounts and locating the interview as a setting in which these accounts were generated. Respondents' accounts highlighted the tension between the affirmation of personal choice and autonomy in principle and their subscription to a variety of powerful social norms. Respondents’ rhetorical commitment to women’s reproductive autonomy was very strongly articulated in their response to the vignettes. When accounting for their own fertility preferences and decision-making processes respondents referred to a range of social conventions and constraints limiting their choices. Parenthood was described as a normative transition in terms of being ‘natural’ and ‘expected’ in the life course. Respondents, who identified as ‘childfree’ however, presented themselves as being made accountable for making the decision to not have children. A majority of respondents expressed a clear family size preference of two, but in practice respondents qualified this by taking into consideration a variety of biological, material and social circumstances. Respondents saw parenthood as being constrained by the fulfilment of a range of common ‘preconditions’, which included the completion of education, being in secure employment, being in a stable relationship and having material and social resources for raising children; the postponement of parenthood until these preconditions were met was presented by respondents as being ‘responsible’. Further, the varying degrees of communication respondents said they had with their partners around the issue of parenthood, and the nature of that communication, suggested that fertility behaviours were rarely the outcome of explicit, conscious negotiations and joint decision-making by partners. This study demonstrated that fertility decisions are guided by social norms around parenthood and negotiated constantly in response to changing personal and social contexts. The heterogeneity of the sample enabled a rich analysis of the role of gender and age on the differential experiences and expectations expressed in respondent’s’ accounts. This study adds to the small but growing body of literature that highlights the value of applying qualitative research methods to the study of fertility, which is particularly useful in gaining a deeper understanding of fertility as a social process.

Partners play a critical role in making decisions about fertility preservation among young patients with cancer, yet little is known about these dyadic decisions when planning cancer treatment. Fertility preservation entails helping cancer patients preserve fertility after cancer treatment. This qualitative study investigated: 1) Heterosexual couples' responses to potential fertility loss; 2) their process in making fertility preservation decisions; 3) their ethical and legal concerns, and 4) recommendations for other couples undergoing similar treatment. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 heterosexual couples whose female partners were diagnosed with cancer and had received fertility preservation consultations within the past 5 years. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using grounded theory methods. The results indicated that couples have varied reactions to infertility. In most, spouses let the patients take the lead in, and supported, their fertility preservation decisions. Spouses recommended support to patients. Couples face challenges in making fertility preservation decisions. Input from, and support for, both partners is essential to ensure well-informed, high-quality fertility preservation decisions.

The thesis examines the determinants of decision making of child conception. The estimation of fixed effect model of panel data from 14 districts of the Czech Republic shows pro-cyclical development of the count of born children. According to the model, in the economic recession the demand for children declines, because the decision making is influenced by uncertainty that emerges from the labor market instability. The results are in consent with contemporary scientific literature which have shown the pro-cyclical development of fertility in developed countries since the 1980s. The model's dependent variable is the modified birth rate which allows to examine the impact of change in unemployment and other control variables on the decision making of child conception. The empirical results show that economic insecurity in the shape of unemployment have a significant negative impact on birth rate. Apart from the main outcome the paper presents other interesting results, the impact of changes in economic and demographic variables on the modified birth rate of boys and girls, marital status and education of mother and father.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychological Sciences / Gary Brase / Although fertility decision-making has been the source of considerable theoretical and empirical investigation, the effect of several contextual variables on individuals’ fertility decision-making processes are not yet understood. For example, are individuals more strongly influenced by social forces that are informational or normative? Also, do individuals change their fertility intentions based on their current and developmental economic conditions? Further, how ‘shared’ are reproductive decisions within a couple, are males or females more likely to get what they want? This 3-study program of research used both experimental and exploratory qualitative methods to elucidate the nature of these unresolved issues within the domain of fertility decision-making. Study 1 (N = 344, M[subscript]age = 23, SD[subscript]age =6.41, 59.3% female) found that highly motivated individuals’ fertility intentions were more susceptible to informational, compared to normative messages (the opposite was true for unmotivated participants). Study 2 (N = 249, M[subscript]age = 24, SD[subscript]age =6.10, 61.4% female) found that exposure to mortality primes up-regulated fertility intentions for individuals with “fast” life history strategies, but facilitated the down-regulation of fertility intentions for individuals with “slow” life history strategies. Interestingly, resource scarcity primes were associated with the postponement of fertility plans in individuals’ with “fast” life history strategies. Study 3 (N = 120, M[subscript]age = 21, SD[subscript]age =4.96, 50% female) found that, contrary to predictions, the similarity of couples’ gender role attitudes, career-orientations, and education levels did not significantly predict the frequency of their use of statements coded as compromise and agreement or persuasion and disagreement in their discussions regarding their future reproductive plans. Findings do suggest that individuals with higher levels of education were more likely to use persuasion and disagreement statements in their child timing and number discussions with their romantic partner, indicative of greater decision-making power in that particular social exchange. Further, men and women in study 3 were equally likely to use statements coded as compromise and agreement, persuasion and disagreement, and concession when discussing both their future fertility plans as well as their future financial plans.

This thesis contributes to enhance our knowledge on fertility decisions by addressing two major issues. First, it contributes to the understanding of the factors behind the differences in fertility levels among European countries by adopting a holistic perspective. Second, it adds to the fertility topic by examining the whole fertility decision-making process using a dyadic and a life-course perspective to address the ‘fertility gap’ that exists between desired family size and the actual number of children. In order to provide these contributions, this thesis is structured as follows. After a detailed review of the literature, major attention is dedicated to the analysis of the differences in terms of fertility levels between the European countries (Chapter 2). Chapter 3 investigates the fertility decision-making process exploiting the unique information of HILDA, which allows for a dyadic as well as longitudinal analysis of the overall process. The last chapter examines in-depth the transition to parenthood among couples of diverse ethnic origins in Australia.

La presente tesi è un contributo allo studio delle implicazioni economiche delle intenzioni di fecondità e all’analisi degli aspetti economici legati ai processi decisionali riproduttivi. Precisamente la tesi, composta da tre capitoli indipendenti e basata su dati Italiani, si focalizza su donne, su individui che vivono in coppia e sulle coppie. In particolare lo studio mira a comprendere: i) l'interazione esistente tra il mercato del lavoro (con un focus particolare sul ruolo del settore occupazionale femminile) e le preferenze per la formazione della famiglia; ii) le influenze della ripartizione dei ruoli domestici all’interno della coppia sulle intenzioni riproduttive; iii) le determinanti (all’interno delle coppie) dell’accordo/disaccordo circa l'intenzione di diventare genitori una seconda volta, e -per coppie che registrano un disaccordo- iv) le determinanti che spingono una donna a contrastare l’intenzione positive del suo partner per un secondo figlio. La tesi utilizza il mixed-method design, una strategia basata sull’analisi quantitativa dei dati nonché sull’analisi approfondita di interviste: questo approccio consente di studiare l'argomento da diverse prospettive e -grazie ai due metodi di ricerca -quantitativo e qualitativo- di approfondire le conoscenze del fenomeno di interesse. / The thesis is a contribution to the study of the economic implications of fertility intentions and desires and of the economic aspects of the fertility decision making process. Precisely, it is based on three autonomous chapters and it aims at understanding: a) for women and for individuals within the couples the interplay between fertility and labour market preferences (with a particular focus on the role of women's sector of employment), and the influences that the (un)balanced division of domestic duties play on the intentions of becoming parents for another time in Italy; b) for couples living together the determinants of their (dis)agreement about the intention of becoming parents again; and c) for couples that disagree on future fertility plans, the determinants of female’s contrasting attitude towards her partners’ positive fertility intention. The dissertation uses a mixed-method design- a strategy based on survey data analysis as well as in-depth interviews analysis: this approach allows investigating the topic from different perspectives, by means of both quantitative and qualitative research methods in order to provide new insights into the phenomenon of interest.