Online Lab Talk

The prospective power of personality on childbearing. A longitudinal study based on data from Germany

Steffen Peters
Online Lab Talk via Zoom, September 16, 2020

On Wednesday, September 16 at 1 p.m. (Rostock time) Steffen Peters, PhD student at the Population Health Laboratory at MPIDR gives an Online Lab Talk about the prospective power of personality on childbearing.

The last decades have seen an increasing number of studies examining the association between personality and demographic processes such as mortality or marital behavior. However, research on the link between personality and fertility is relatively rare. The present study fills this gap by examining the predictive effect of the Five Factor Model (FFM) on the timing of first and second childbirths in Germany using data from the Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP) from 2005-2017. Findings demonstrate that extraversion is the strongest predictor regarding first (positive) and second (negative) childbirths. Furthermore, agreeableness tends to accelerate, and conscientiousness delays, first childbirths. These effects are mainly based on males’ fertility behavior whereas women’s personality is not much correlated with childbearing. The present study complements the understanding of the personality-fertility association by exploring the impact of personality trait scores on following fertility behavior. However, further research is needed to comprehend the path from personality to childbearing, through which mechanisms personality affects fertility and how these effects differ between various settings such as other cultures, higher birth orders or births after re-partnering.

Register to take part online

If you are not a member of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) but would like to attend the talk, you are very welcome! Please register by sending an email to Maarten Bijlsma stating which lab talk you would like to attend.

Online Lab Talk on Wednesday, September 16 at 1 p.m. (Rostock Time)