title: Bio-social determinants of fertility.
abstract: This paper reviews several studies that investigated the potential role of genetic factors in determining fertility outcomes. Our review demonstrates convincingly that fertility contains genetic variance; that is, differences between humans in their genetic make-up affects their fertility outcomes and fertility-related behaviours. This finding is robust using both heritabilities and coefficients of genetic variation, and using both direct measures of fertility outcomes and also fertility precursors like fecundity, marriage, fertility expectations and attempts to get pregnant (proception). Moreover, genetic variance can change over short periods of time or across educational levels, specifically for females, and the relevance of genetic variance seems to increase during times of increasing reproductive choice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104-6299, USA. hpkohler@pop.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Kohler
authors.forename: Joseph Lee
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Rodgers
authors.forename: Warren B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Skytthe
authors.forename: Kaare
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Christensen
mesh_terms: D003710:Demography; D005298:Fertility / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D018433:Twin Studies as Topic; D014427:Twins / Q000235:genetics*