Childlessness in a Transitional Population

The United States At the Turn of the Century

Bibliographic Data

ID6080286
AuthorsStewart E Tolnay (0000-0001-7792-7435, University of Georgia), Avery M Guest (University of Washington)
Year1982
Volume7
Issue2
Pages200-219
Publication date1982-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Family History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0363-1990 • E-ISSN: 1552-5473
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/036319908200700204
PMID11611792
OpenAlexW2047350180
LanguageEN
Citations received25
References cited22

Most analyses of white childless ness in the United States before 1920 have perceived it as being primarily due to in voluntary factors, such as poor health and nutrition. This paper analyzes childless ness across various geographic areas at the turn of the century. It shows that the sub stantial variations in childlessness were due largely to voluntary choice on the part of many American women, particularly in the North Atlantic region. In other areas, such as the agricultural South, almost all childlessness was probably involuntary. On the whole, variations in childlessness seemed primarily to reflect the stage of these areas in the general transition to low fertility occurring in the United States. There is some evidence, however, that urban industrialism may have had an in dependent positive influence on the degree of childlessness

Childlessness · Demographic economics · Demographic transition · Economic growth · Economics · Fertility · Geography · Political science · Population · Sociology · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics