ID’s recommended reads – 25/09/2020 – Wanda Van Hemerlijck and Lucia Rodriguez Loureiro
At the very point governments introduced confinement measures to combat COVID-19 spread, newspapers jumped in with speculation about consequences for family formation and dissolution with titles such as “What’s it going to be after the coronacrisis: a real babyboom or a wave of divorce?” , and more recent additions claiming that filing for divorce is on the rise. The reasoning: physical intimacy will either increase, or the very opposite, while quite literally confined to one another.
This week’s post shows how academics are seeking to go beyond studying direct and indirect health effects of COVID-19 and policy measures, but also how family dynamics are affected. Readings include: a perspective on how the pandemic might affect human fertility in light of earlier crises, a survey-study from Italy that is among the first to focus on the desirability of parenthood during this time, and an essay propagating a life course approach to future COVID-19 research that will help us understand long-term effects.
The COVID-19 pandemic and human fertility. Aassve et al (2020).
Historically, spikes in mortality due to wars, famines, and pandemics were followed by changes in fertility: there were fewer births in the short term, followed by recuperation of birth rates in subsequent years. But how a pandemic results in economic and social change can also influence childbearing intentions, subsequently affecting birth rates, and the rate of population ageing. This viewpoint focuses on how fertility may be affected globally due to COVID-19.
Desire for parenthood at the time of COVID-19 pandemic: an insight into the Italian situation. Micelli et al (2020).
This study looked into whether Italian heterosexual couples of reproductive ages did or did not change their desire for parenthood during COVID-19, and why. More than a third of those initially planning to have children abandoned this intention due to worries about their future economic circumstances and consequences on pregnancy. In contrast, about a tenth of those with no initial intention to become a parent revealed a change in this desire. The authors conclude that the fact that this pandemic might impact the desire to become a parent could be expressed in altered birth rates in the near future.
Understanding the effects of COVID-19 through a life course lens. Settersten et al (2020)
We finish with this essay as a call for action for future research. It shows how adopting a life course perspective can make important contributions to understanding how the COVID-19 pandemic affects individuals, populations, but also families. The authors argue that the pandemic influences how people organise and experience life transitions and trajectories, and will undoubtedly have short- and long-term consequences on a variety of domains. For families, the timing or anticipated timing of cohabitations, marriages, fertility, separations and divorce are most likely affected and will ultimately influence population structure and dynamics.
