Determinants of childlessness among men and women: do they differ?

This paper investigates the determinants of childlessness among men and women in adult life in Italy, using data on a sample of 30-49 years old men (7,254) and women (7,580) from the Multipurpose Italian survey, Family and Social Actors (2003). A weighted multinomial logit model is used to contrast “voluntary childless men (or women)” with other categories: the “un-voluntary childless” and fathers (or mothers). Covariates include background and early life course characteristics; family formation variables; work related variables, attitudes and values. Results seem to corroborate the hypothesis that the determinants of childless among men and women partly differ. In particular voluntary childlessness among men seems linked mainly to poor education, poor health and worse social status. Conversely among women the opposite is true: those with a university degree and a managerial position are more likely to be voluntary childless. Couples’ breakdown or celibacy are important factors associated to childlessness regardless gender, as well as secularisation, anti-traditionalist attitudes, and the residence in the North of Italy.