Child Bearing and Child Rearing

• CHILDBEARING - the act of carrying and having children

  CHILDREARING - how they are raised/socialised
• BIRTH RATE - the total number of babies born in a given year.
• TOTAL FERTILITY RATE - the average number of children born to a women over the course of her reproductive lifetime (15-44)
• Birth rates have fallen

  • cost of living crisis
  • access to abortion
• Fertility rates have fallen

  • fallen to 1.49 children per woman of childbearing age
• Women are having fewer children than in the 20th century.

  • average number of children per woman in 1964 was 2.93
  • average number of children per woman in 2020 was 1.58.
• Women are having children later.

  • Average age for a woman having their first child in 1971 was 26.5 years old.
  • Average age for a woman having their first child in 2019 was 30.7 years old.
• The number of births outside marriages and civilpartnerships is higher than the number of birthswithin marriages and civil partnerships.
• Changing attitudes and declining stigma

  • The number of children born outside marriage and civil partnerships is likely to increase.
  • Parenthood is a lifelong, stressful commitment and some choose not to pursue it; this has also become socially acceptable.
• Increased cohabitation

  • The number of children born outside marriage and civil partnerships is likely to increase.
• secularisation

  • Religion as an institution has traditionally encouraged and supported childbirth within marriages, and stigmatised premarital sex.
  • As the influence of religion declines, people choose not to follow religious influences or traditions.
• Changes to the position of women

  • Women have alternatives to 'motherhood'; they may choose to pursue educational and career aspirations and delay having children.
  • This increases the average age for a woman having her first child.
  • As women have children later, the total number of children born per woman is fewer, which makes family sizes smaller, and reduces the total fertility rate.
• changes to the position of women

  • women's entry in paid employment has led to their financial independence, and women may choose to pursue other interests instead of motherhood.

  increases the average age for women having her first child.
• Economic reasons

  • The costs of raising a child are substantial
  • With increased cost of living people may choose to have fewer children, or remain child-free. This reduces the birth rate and the total fertility rate.
• Improved contraception

  • Technological advances and social policies have made contraception readily available to both men and women.
  • Women's choice to have children is now under control, and is directly related to their career aspirations.
• Decline in the infant Mortality Rate

  • The total number of infants who die before they reach their first birthday is a given year
• Decline in the infant mortality rate

  • has declined due to improvements in science and technology.
  • Greater understanding of scientific methods and techniques, and improved technology increase the chances of a child surviving infancy
• Decline in the infant Mortality rate

  • children are more likely to survive infancy than ever before.
  • Families used to have many children hoping some would survive through infancy; families had more children to compensate for the high infant mortality rate.
  • As the IMR decreases, and children are more likely tosurvive, this is no longer a consideration; couples arehaving the number of children they want, notcompensating for the IMR.
• Lone-parent families

  • lone-parent families are becoming an increasingly common family type in the UK
  • Living in a lone-parent family is twice as likely to be in poverty as a child living with two parents.
• reasons why Lone-parent families are becoming common in society

  • changes in law
  • changes in attitudes and declining stigma
  • secularisation
  • rising expectations of marriage
  • individualism- "single by choice"
• Lone-parent families and the welfare state

  THE NEW RIGHT- MURRAY

  • the welfare state creates 'perverse incentives' and a 'culture of welfare dependency'
  • social policies and the welfare state reward undesirable and anti-social behaviour, which is a threat to social order.
• THE DEPENDENCY RATIO

  what is the dependency ratio?

  The relationship between the working, productive part ofthe population (independents), and the non-working(dependent) part of the population.
• THE DEPENDENCY RATIO

  how is it calculated ?


  • Total number of dependents divided by total number of independents X 100
• THE DEPENDENCY RATIO

  who are 'the dependents' ?


  • children aged 15 and under
  • pensioners
• HOW BIRTH RATES AFFECT THE DEPENDENCY RATIO:

  • If the birth rate falls there are fewer children, and so you need less capital to support the now smaller dependent population. There is less 'burden of dependency' on the dependency ratio.
  • However, in the long term fewer children being born means fewer adults in society, fewer people working. A smaller working population means the 'burden of dependency' may begin to increase again.
• Reconstituted families:

  • Children in reconstituted families more commonly come from the woman's previous relationship.
• HOW DOES BIRTH RATE AFFECT THE DEPENDENCY RATIO?

  If the birth rate rises:

  there will be more dependents, increasing the burden on the dependency ratio, but in the long term there will be more independents, and the burden will fall again.
• Reconstituted families are more likely to be in poverty than other family types
• reasons for the rise of reconstituted families

  • changes in law
  • changes in attitudes and declining stigma
  • secularisation
  • rising expectations of marriage
  • individualism
• • 85% of reconstituted families have at least one child from a woman's previous relationship.
  • 11% have at least one child from the man's previous relationship
  • 4% have at least one child from both partners previous relationship.