Laboratory

Fertility and Well-Being

At a Glance Projects Publications Team

Research Area

The Intersection of Health and Fertility

The link between health and fertility lies at the core of demography and demographic theory, from Malthusian perspectives and the demographic transition model to contemporary research. Understanding this link is critical for gaining deeper insight into how population health conditions and reproductive contexts are related to fertility variation. It is also essential for assessing whether and how reproductive experiences and family circumstances are associated with parental health, pregnancy-related outcomes, and children’s well-being and development. The interconnections between fertility, health, and human capital development may, in turn, shape broader patterns of social and economic development. This research area provides a foundation for analyzing these relationships within the health-fertility nexus.

The projects address the questions of whether health predicts fertility outcomes and how family circumstances and reproductive processes are associated with consequences for parents and children. For example, mental health and partnership contexts are examined in relation to childlessness and fertility behavior. Pregnancy outcomes and subjective well-being trajectories are studied around childbirth and pregnancy loss. The role of medically assisted reproduction is examined with a focus on maternal morbidity, and the implications of pregnancy intentions are assessed in relation to infant mortality across contexts. Family complexity is also examined in relation to children’s educational outcomes, thus emphasizing how changing family trajectories intersect with well-being.

To address these questions, data from a wide range of countries in North America and Western Europe as well as low- and middle-income countries are used. Sources include Nordic population registers, large-scale survey datasets, and the Demographic and Health Surveys covering more than 75 countries. Most studies apply individual-level longitudinal designs and exploit kinship or couple linkages where available to account for shared family contexts. Advanced statistical techniques are used to limit confounding and to identify mediating pathways, and in several studies the role of broader contextual conditions is assessed through comparative designs.

Projects of this Research Area