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Childhood Neighborhoods and Life-Time Fertility in Twentieth-Century Southern Sweden: A k-Nearest Neighbor Approach

Souza-Maia, Vinicius LU orcid ; Hedefalk, Finn LU orcid and Dribe, Martin LU (2024) In Population, Space and Place
Abstract
Despite a large literature on the importance of childhood neighborhoods for life course transitions, there is a lack of fertility studies combining a life-course perspective with detailed neighborhood measures. Addressing this gap, we use longitudinal data in which the entire population of a Swedish town is geocoded at the address-level, 1939–1967, and linked to national registers from 1968 to 2015. We study how social neighborhoods in childhood influence fertility outcomes by constructing individual neighborhoods at the address level to measure the social class of nearby childhood neighbors. We analyze the age at first and last birth, children ever born, birth spacing, and childlessness. Growing up in upper-class neighborhoods is... (More)
Despite a large literature on the importance of childhood neighborhoods for life course transitions, there is a lack of fertility studies combining a life-course perspective with detailed neighborhood measures. Addressing this gap, we use longitudinal data in which the entire population of a Swedish town is geocoded at the address-level, 1939–1967, and linked to national registers from 1968 to 2015. We study how social neighborhoods in childhood influence fertility outcomes by constructing individual neighborhoods at the address level to measure the social class of nearby childhood neighbors. We analyze the age at first and last birth, children ever born, birth spacing, and childlessness. Growing up in upper-class neighborhoods is associated with delayed fertility for both men and women, but no association is found for the number of children ever born or for childlessness. Associations are stable over time, and later ages of neighborhood exposure matter more, especially for men. Contrary to prior literature’s focus on the lower classes, our results are driven by upper-class individuals growing up in distinctly white-collar neighborhoods. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
in press
subject
keywords
fertility, neighborhood effects, life course, childhood neighborhood, K-nearest neighbors
in
Population, Space and Place
publisher
John Wiley & Sons Inc.
ISSN
1544-8444
DOI
10.1002/psp.2785
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
67d02acd-75d5-4f0b-b840-4c85d39ccd14
date added to LUP
2024-04-04 16:42:21
date last changed
2024-04-16 15:11:00
@article{67d02acd-75d5-4f0b-b840-4c85d39ccd14,
  abstract     = {{Despite a large literature on the importance of childhood neighborhoods for life course transitions, there is a lack of fertility studies combining a life-course perspective with detailed neighborhood measures. Addressing this gap, we use longitudinal data in which the entire population of a Swedish town is geocoded at the address-level, 1939–1967, and linked to national registers from 1968 to 2015. We study how social neighborhoods in childhood influence fertility outcomes by constructing individual neighborhoods at the address level to measure the social class of nearby childhood neighbors. We analyze the age at first and last birth, children ever born, birth spacing, and childlessness. Growing up in upper-class neighborhoods is associated with delayed fertility for both men and women, but no association is found for the number of children ever born or for childlessness. Associations are stable over time, and later ages of neighborhood exposure matter more, especially for men. Contrary to prior literature’s focus on the lower classes, our results are driven by upper-class individuals growing up in distinctly white-collar neighborhoods.}},
  author       = {{Souza-Maia, Vinicius and Hedefalk, Finn and Dribe, Martin}},
  issn         = {{1544-8444}},
  keywords     = {{fertility; neighborhood effects; life course; childhood neighborhood; K-nearest neighbors}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{04}},
  publisher    = {{John Wiley & Sons Inc.}},
  series       = {{Population, Space and Place}},
  title        = {{Childhood Neighborhoods and Life-Time Fertility in Twentieth-Century Southern Sweden: A k-Nearest Neighbor Approach}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/psp.2785}},
  doi          = {{10.1002/psp.2785}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}