ArticlePloS one2018
Life satisfaction favors reproduction. The universal positive effect of life satisfaction on childbearing in contemporary low fertility countries.
Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Invisible threshold of childbearing: an investigation of social trust and fertility intentions.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Article
- Women's Domestic Burden and Gendered Fertility Intentions in Italy: The Role of Parity and Child's Sex.European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2025Article
- Intention to have a third child among millennial parents with two children in eastern China: A cross-sectional survey.Nursing open · 2024Article
- Social Climate, Uncertainty and Fertility Intentions: from the Great Recession to the Covid-19 Crisis.European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2023Article
- Fertility intentions to have a second or third child among the childbearing-age population in Central China under China's three-child policy: A cross-sectional study.Journal of global health · 2023Article
- Employment Protection Legislation, Labour Market Dualism, and Fertility in Europe.European journal of population = Revue europeenne de demographie · 2023Article
- The Impact of Health Insurance Policy on the Fertility Intention of Rural Floating Population in China: Empirical Evidence from Cross-Sectional Data.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- The Impact of Rural Population Mobility on Fertility Intention under the Comprehensive Two-Child Policy: Evidence from Rural China.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- The agency of fertility plans.Frontiers in sociology · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Do people with higher life satisfaction have more children? Having children requires considerable energy and investment on the part of parents. However, even in countries where contraceptives are easily available and widely used, where having children is optional and most of time the result of an intended action, parenthood has not gone "out of fashion". This paper tests the hypothesis that higher life satisfaction fosters reproductive behavior. We argue that people satisfied with their overall life feel better prepared to start the monumental task of childrearing. If, it is suggested, life satisfaction facilitates fertility, then this positive link should be observable in contemporary low fertility societies. The hypothesis is tested by taking overall life satisfaction as a determinant of fertility behavior using long longitudinal data available for developed countries: namely for Australia, Germany, Russia, South Korea, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We find that higher levels of subjective well-being are, indeed, associated with a higher probability of having children in all the countries considered. We, therefore, conclude that life satisfaction favors reproduction, at least in low fertility societies.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.