Raybould, Alyce; Mynarska, Monika; Sear, Rebecca; (2023) "The future is unstable": Exploring changing fertility intentions in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic. Perspectives on sexual and reproductive health, 55 (4). pp. 229-238. ISSN 1538-6341 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/psrh.12248
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To understand whether reproductive decision-making among United Kingdom (UK) respondents had changed in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and, if so, why COVID-19 had led them to change their intentions. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey in January 2021. We asked survey participants if their fertility intentions had changed and to rate how aspects of their life had changed during COVID-19. We also included an open-ended question and asked participants to explain in their own words how COVID-19 had influenced their reproductive decision-making. We used descriptive and regression analyses to explore the quantitative data and thematically analyzed written responses. RESULTS: Nine percent (n = 70) of our 789 UK respondents reported a change in fertility intention after the start of the pandemic. Changes in both pro-natal and anti-natal directions made the overall change in intentions small: there was a 2% increase across the sample in not intending a child between the two time points. Only increased financial insecurity was predictive of changing intentions. Responses to the open-ended question (n = 103) listed health concerns, indirect costs of the pandemic, and changing work-life priorities as reasons for changing their intentions. CONCLUSION: While studies conducted at the beginning of the pandemic found that fertility intentions became more anti-natal, we found little overall change in fertility intentions in January 2021. Our findings of small pro-natal and anti-natal changes in fertility intentions align with emerging UK birth rate data for 2021, which show minimal change in the total fertility rate in response to the pandemic.
Item Type | Article |
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Faculty and Department | Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health > Dept of Population Health (2012- ) |
Research Centre | Centre for Maternal, Reproductive and Child Health (MARCH) |
PubMed ID | 38084828 |
Elements ID | 212846 |
Official URL | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/psrh.12248 |
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