What's behind recent fertility trends - Government policy, alarms on biological clocks or lessons learned from childhood?

People and Place

Volumn 15, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 22-29

  Read, Donna ^a   Crockett, Judith ^b   Watson, Geoff ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY   (Australia)

^b CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION; FERTILITY; POPULATION POLICY; PREGNANCY;

AUSTRALASIA; AUSTRALIA; NEW SOUTH WALES;

EID: 34447630647     PISSN: 10394788     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (46)

1. Births Australia 2005, Catalogue no. 3301.0, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Canberra, 2006
2. See for example, J. Caldwell, Theory of fertility Decline, Academic Press, London, 1982;
3. G.S. Becker and R. J. Barro, 'A reformulation of the economic theory of fertility', The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 103, no. 1, 1988, pp. 1-25;
4. D. Friedman, M. Hechter and S. Kanazawa, 'A theory of the value of children', Demography, vol. 31, no. 13, 1994, pp. 375-401;
5. R. Lesthaeghe, 'The second demographic transition in western countries: an interpretation', in K. O. Mason and A. M. Jensen (Eds), Gender and Family Change in Industrialized Countries, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995, pp. 17-62;
6. D. A, Coleman, Reproduction and survival in an unknown world, what drives today's industrial populations, and to what future, Hofster Lecture Series no. 5, The Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute, Amsterdam, 1999;
7. P. McDonald, 'Low fertility in Australia: evidence causes and policy responses', People and Place, vol. 8, no, 2, 2000, pp. 6-21;
8. A. Barnes, Low fertility: a discussion paper, Occasional Paper no. 2, Department of Family and Community Services, Canberra, 2001;
9. J. Bongaarts, 'Fertility and reproductive preferences in post-transitional societies', Population and Development Review, vol. 27, Supplement Global Fertility Transition, 2001, pp. 60-281;
10. D. Van de Kaa, 'Postmodern fertility preferences from changing value orientation to new behaviour', Population and Development Review, vol. 27, Supplement Global Fertility Transition, 2001, pp. 290-331.
11. Births Australia 2005, op. cit.
12. Australian Social Trends (Echoes of the baby boom) ABS, Catalogue no. 4102.0, 2004, pp. 7-10
13. Births Australia 2005, op. cit.
14. Australian Social Trends, op. cit.
15. R. Kippen, 'The rise of the older mother', People and Place, vol. 14, no. 3, 2006, pp. 1-11
16. V. Haussegger, 'The sins of our feminist mothers', The Age, Melbourne, 23 July 2002;
17. V. Haussegger, Wonderwoman: The Myth of Having it All, Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, 2005
18. See for example, C. Pirani, 'Boom in birthrate has three fathers', The Australian, 22 September 2006, p. 3;
19. T. Colebatch and M. Schubert, 'National fertility hits a 10-year high', The Age, 18 October 2006, p. 6;
20. B. Packham, 'Mums' waiting game: baby boom as women try to beat clock', Herald Sun, 19 December 2006, p. 11.
21. Births Australia 2005, op. cit., p. 7
22. Kippen, 2006, op. cit.
23. Births Australia 2005, op. cit.
24. R. Kippen and P. McDonald, 2006, Past and future fertility: findings from a detailed examination of Australian census data, Paper presented to the ABS Census Conference, Canberra, 19 July 2006
25. The Maternity Payment entitled parents to claim $3000 on the birth of each child born after 1st July 2004 and $4000 for those born after 1st July 2006. It will rise again to $5000 for babies born after 1st July 2008. Australian Government Budget 2004-05, Revenue Measures - more help for families, Budget paper no. 2: part 1, 2004, available from
26. 'The 7.30 Report', television interview, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, broadcast 9 December 2004, transcript available from
27. P. Costello (Treasurer), Record births welcomed, press release no. 052, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 2 June 2006
28. House of Representatives Official Hansard, no. 18, Thursday 7 December, 2006
29. Births Australia 2005, op. cit.
30. J. Maher and M. Dever, 'What matters to women: beyond reproductive stereotypes', People and Place, vol. 12, no. 3, 2004, pp. 10-17
31. Kippen, 2006, op. cit.
32. We aim to interview mothers: (i) from areas with varying fertility rates, (ii) from different sized centres, (iii) with varying numbers of children and family size preferences, (iv) whose families are complete and incomplete, and (v) from differing socioeconomic backgrounds.
33. Births Australia 2005, op. cit.
34. Colebatch and Schubert, op. cit.;
35. Pirani, op. cit.
36. Kippen, 2006, op. cit.
37. Births Australia 2005, op. cit.
38. ibid.
39. ibid.
40. See for example, R. J. Adamek and M. R. Roller, 'Size of family of orientation and family size preference: a replication', Sociological Focus, vol. 17, no. 3, 1984, pp. 201-210;
41. W. G. Axinin, M. E. Clarkberg and A. Thornton, 'Family influences on family size preferences', Demography, vol. 31, no. 1, 1994, pp. 65-79;
42. H-P. Kohler, J. L. Rodgers and K. Christensen, 'Is fertility behaviour in our genes? Findings from a Danish twin study', Population and Development Review, vol. 25, no. 2. 1999, pp. 253-288;
43. M. Murphy and L. B. Knudsen, 'The intergenerational transmission of fertility in contemporary Denmark: the effects of number of siblings (full and half), birth order, and whether male or female', Population Studies, vol. 56, 2002, pp. 235-248;
44. A. Pouta, M-R. Järvelin, E. Hemminki, U. Sovio, and A-L. Hartikainen, 'Mothers and daughters: intergenerational patterns of reproduction', European Journal of Public Health, vol. 15, no. 2, 2005, pp. 195-199.
45. Kohler et al., 1999, op. cit.
46. M. Murphy, 'Is the relationship between fertility of parents and children really weak?', Social Biology, vol. 46, no. 1-2, pp. 122-148