Certainty of fertility preferences among Dutch women

BACKGROUND Studies on fertility preferences have highlighted a gap between preferred and realised fertility. Here we examine two potential determinants of this fertility gap: how certain people are in their preferred fertility, and to what extent there is partner agreement on this preferred number. METHODS A sample of 758 women between the ages of 18 and 40 were recruited through the Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences-panel, a representative sample of Dutch individuals.RESULTS Only 21% of women without children and 48% of mothers were certain about their fertility preference... Mehr ...