Early Stages and Methodological Process

I began my doctorate training in the Department of Sociology and the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in August 2021. Much of the beginning stages of this project involved brainstorming with my adviser about the number of possible directions and ways to study fertility intentions from a social demographic perspective. I knew early on that underneath this project (and like most projects I’ve worked on), there were some questions that motivated its inception and would continue to motivate me in writing a dissertation on this topic.

The questions are “What keeps romantic partners together over time, and what returns are offered by marriage and parenthood in contemporary society?” Hence, my interest in voluntary childlessness as it relates to relationship outcomes and health. I knew this project would not simply be a question of what predicts voluntary childlessness, but would also address what are the health and relationship consequences for such a choice. By the end of summer 2022, I became more interested in the notion of “choice” as it relates to reproductive intentions, and this is what I consider the beginning of when I began to feel less like a psychologist and more like a sociologist. A very rewarding moment.

Fall 2022: Having very little quantitative research experience upon entering the program (with only my Bachelor of Arts degree), I utilized what I learned in my statistics course sequence and worked with a statistician who helped me with importing multiple datasets from the CDC’s National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) survey into Stata. I began with analyzing the data collected from 2017-2019, and have since continued examining demographic trends all the way back to 2002. Much of my quantitative training and experience has so far involved familiarizing myself with this dataset, and focusing in on variables pertaining to reproductive decision-making, relationship history, and health.

Winter 2023- : I am currently working on finalizing my conceptualization of voluntary childlessness, as distinct from other forms of childlessness. This is an essential first step before continuing on with data analysis.

Goals for summer 2023: I will continue using both Stata and Python to run analyses using the final “childless” variable as my (dependent) variable and running multiple regression analyses to examine the complex relationships between this choice and relationship and health experiences and outcomes. Finally, I intend on submitting a proposal to present at the 2024 Population Association of America academic conference.

More details to come!