Timing of Childbearing and Disability in Older Age

Naomi J. Spence, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Fertility is central to the life experiences of women. As such, it has consequences for all aspects of their lives and implications for their long-term well-being, yet how fertility matters in the later years is relatively unknown. Using data on a nationally representative cohort of women in the United States, I examine the relationship between the timing of childbearing and disability in later life as measured by functional limitations and ADL limitations with attention to the mediating effects of early life and adult social and economic circumstances and later life health. Preliminary results indicate that early and premarital initiation of childbearing is positively associated with disability, though these effects are accounted for by educational attainment and adult socioeconomic status, respectively. Late childbearing is also found to be associated with an increased likelihood of having ADL limitations, but again educational attainment and adult social and economic characteristics explain this relationship.