Postponement Of The First Birth: Patterns Of Childbearing In An Educated Group Of Women.

Abstract

Given the changes in our culture over the last two decades, more women are postponing the birth of their first child. This study examined the decision to delay the first child in a group of educated women. A questionnaire was mailed to the sample of women used in both Horner's original fear of success work (1965) and Hoffman's follow-up research (1974). The following variables from the Hoffman follow-up and the current study were examined as to their effect on the length of delay on the first birth: (1) SES mobility; (2) current SES; (3) desire and expectation of career success; (4) perceived career success; (5) potential career satisfaction; (6) potential satisfaction in children; (7) marital happiness; (8) sibling constellation; (9) disagreement with spouse on childbearing; (10) sex role orientation; (11) self-definition; (12) shift in attitude toward career from 1974 to 1980; and (13) shift in attitude toward being a mother from 1974 to 1980. Comparing delayers with non-delayers, it was found that a shift in attitude towards career from 1974 to 1980 was a key differentiating variable. Delayers reported a decrease in career importance and non-delayers an increase. There was a sequential ordering of career-then-baby or baby-then-career, rather than a pattern of simultaneous involvement in both career and motherhood. Moreover, the delayers reported happier marriages than non-delayers. It was speculated that delayers have had the developmental lead time to grow sturdy as individuals in their own right and in relationship to a spouse before entering parenthood.