The long-term impact of parents' childbearing decisions on children's self-esteem.
We examine the long-term impact of parents' childbearing decisions on children's self-esteem. We focus on subjective aspects of the home environment in the creation of children's internalized sense of self-worth. Unique 23-year family panel data combining measures of mothers' childbearing, mothers' childbearing intentions, and children's self-esteem allow us to examine the overall links between parents' childbearing and children's self-esteem. The results demonstrate that parents' childbearing intentions can have a significant long-term impact on their children's self-esteem. Children who were unintended by their mothers have significantly lower self-esteem 23 years later. Our findings indicate that giving birth to an unintended child can have a long-term negative impact on subjective aspects of the child's well-being, at least in terms of self-esteem. Unintended childbearing has received an increasing amount of research attention in recent years.
Axinn
W G
WG
Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48106-1248, USA. baxinn@umich.edu
Barber
J S
JS
Thornton
A
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002676:Child, Unwanted / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008824:Michigan; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D002666:Psychology, Child / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012649:Self Concept; D013997:Time Factors