Child Disability and Subsequent Fertility: Timing and Quantum Using French Administrative Data

Anne Solaz , Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Eva Beaujouan, University of Vienna (Wittgenstein Centre)

The discovery of a child's disability at birth or later, and the special needs requested, have emotional, financial and time implications for parents. They can affect many aspects of family plans including fertility intentions. This paper aims to link child disability and subsequent childbearing. Literature shows mixed results: A child's disability has been sometimes associated with a lower likelihood of parents transitioning to another birth, but some studies finds that parents of children with specific disabilities, such as Down syndrome, spina bifida or mental health problems, have more subsequent children. We use a large French administrative data between 2011 and 2019 that allow us to follow births in 2,465 families with children with a recognised disability (receiving the education allowance for children with disabilities) and 150,000 families without. We analyse in detail the relationship between the discovery of a disability and the timing and occurrence of subsequent births, and consider the importance of individual characteristics such as age, income and family size in explaining this relationship. Regressions results show that the likelihood of having a second child is halved by having a child with a disability, but decreases much less from the third child. Among those who go on to have more children, the time to the next birth is 1 to 1.5 years longer, suggesting that the time, effort and money spent on caring for the disabled child is an important aspect of subsequent fertility behaviour.

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 Presented in Session 24. Fertility and Health