Dynamic Family Size Preferences During the Covid-19 Mortality Crisis
A Research Note
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10968525 |
|---|---|
| Authors | L J Marteleto (0000-0003-4234-0129, University of Pennsylvania, corresponding author), Sneha Kumar (0000-0003-2437-4050, Northwestern University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 62 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1155-1169 |
| Publication date | 2025-08-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Demography (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0070-3370 • E-ISSN: 1533-7790 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/00703370-12178940 |
| PMID | 40771040 |
| OpenAlex | W4413037007 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 51 |
In this research note, we examine how family size preferences evolved for women with and without children in response to changing COVID-19 mortality exposure during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. We leverage spatiotemporal variation in COVID-19 deaths occurring during panel surveys in 2020 and 2021 with a population-based sample of 2,520 women, aged 18–34, across 94 municipalities in Pernambuco, Brazil. We use individual fixed-effects regressions to examine whether changes in municipality-level COVID-19 death rates are associated with changes in women's desired family size, net of their own or their family's COVID-19 infection status and other time-varying sociodemographic factors. We find that women with and without children at baseline responded differently to changing municipality-level COVID-19 deaths: while women without children did not change their desired family size, women with children saw a small but significant increase in their desired family size in response to rising COVID-19 mortality. These innovative findings suggest that women with children responded to widespread COVID-19-related loss within their communities by wanting to build and consolidate their families. We advance knowledge about varying contextual influences on fertility preferences during epidemics in a middle-income country with early and below-replacement fertility
2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Demographic economics · Economics · Geography · Infectious disease (medical specialty · Outbreak · Pandemic · Population · Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2 · Sociology · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Global Maternal and Child Health · Medicine · Virology
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| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |