LEARNING FROM OTHERS AND RECEIVING SUPPORT: THE IMPACT OF PERSONAL NETWORKS ON FERTILITY INTENTIONS IN POLAND

By C. Bühler, E. Frątczak. European Societies: The Official Journal of the European Sociological Association, 2005

93 citations recorded by the source corpus.

ABSTRACT Research about fertility has focused in the main on studying separately the influence of communication networks and social capital on reproductive behavior, but it has rarely tried to integrate both network properties theoretically or analytically. We therefore discuss a general model of purposeful behavior that perceives individuals’ subjective perceptions of the utilities of different courses of action to be affected by structures of interpersonal influence. Resources needed to realize desired goals are furthermore shaped by exchange relationships that build social capital. These considerations are empirically applied to explanations of the intentions of 758 Polish men and women ever to have a first, second, or third child. Personal networks are especially relevant for the considerations to have a first or second child. The intentions of childless respondents are positively influenced by network partners who are at a similar stage of their reproductive biographies or who have already taken the step of having a first child. However, respondents with one child have a higher probability of intending to have a second child the more they have access to fertility-related social capital.

Subfields: Demography, Gender Studies, Reproductive Medicine

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e341eb500e57d0321fc6d665184c7f26836674ac

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Citations in the corpus

Now or later? The theory of planned behavior and timing of fertility intentions (2011, background): “…subjective norms might be influential come from studies that show that social networks have a strong influence on childbearing intentions (e.g., Bühler & Fratczak, 2007; South & Baumer, 2000) and that girls’ childbearing intentions are influenced by their perceptions of their friends’…”