| Summary: | This thesis explores only-child fertility from a sociodemographic perspective across three main chapters. The first substantive chapter examines trends in the proportion of women with an only-child across 125 countries, from 1920-79 birth cohorts, with combined data from different sources. The results show that the prevalence of only-child fertility has increased across the globe. However, as overall fertility reaches below-replacement, trends become more heterogeneous, and factors beyond a country’s cohort fertility rates and mean ages at childbearing become more important in dictating these prevalences. The second substantive chapter, with data from four countries in the first two waves of the Generations and Gender Surveys, explores fertility intentions and the realisation of those intentions in Eastern and Western Europe for a first and second child with the use of probit models with sample selection. The results show that while people seem to consider families and friends’ opinions, as well as what they believe to be the pros and cons of having a child when forming their fertility intentions, the actual realisation of intentions is more strongly guided by their perceived financial and physiological conditions for having and raising a child. The chapter further discusses differences between Eastern and Western Europe, and between those having a first and second child. The final substantive chapter explores behaviour differences between only-children and children with siblings in the British context with data from the Millennium Cohort Study. Results of a series of logistic models for children aged 3-14, show that only-children have higher odds of presenting abnormal peer behaviours, but fared better than children with siblings in conduct scores. However, the conduct score advantage for only-children disappears when only firstborns or only children with a resident father are considered.
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