This edited volume offers state-of-the-art research on the dynamics of contemporary fertility by examining the implications of the economic and social forces that are driving the rapid change in fertility behavior, and the changing context, determinants, and appropriate measurement of contemporary human reproduction. The volume explores new theoretical avenues that seek to incorporate uncertainty, examine social contagion effects, and explain the rise in childlessness. Religion has emerged as an important fertility determinant, and religiosity, as compared to religious doctrine, is compared and analyzed. Reproductive attitudes are re-examined in chapters that deal with models of parenthood and with the persistence of race-ethnic-nativity differences. A new and important subject of multi-partner fertility is also described by examining it in the context of total fertility and from the usually neglected perspective of men. The impact of divorce on fertility, the measurement of childlessness and the postponement of first births, developments in assortative mating and fertility, and current patterns of interracial fertility are also addressed in this volume. By combining up-to-date research spanning the entire field to illuminate contemporary developments, the book is a valuable source for demographers, sociologists, economists, and all those interested in understanding fertility in today's world.

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This edited volume offers state-of-the-art research on the dynamics of contemporary fertility by examining the implications of the economic and social forces that are driving the rapid change in fertility behavior, and the changing context, determinants, and appropriate measurement of contemporary human reproduction. The volume explores new theoretical avenues that seek to incorporate uncertainty, examine social contagion effects, and explain the rise in childlessness. Religion has emerged as an important fertility determinant, and religiosity, as compared to religious doctrine, is compared and analyzed. Reproductive attitudes are re-examined in chapters that deal with models of parenthood and with the persistence of race-ethnic-nativity differences. A new and important subject of multi-partner fertility is also described by examining it in the context of total fertility and from the usually neglected perspective of men. The impact of divorce on fertility, the measurement of childlessness and the postponement of first births, developments in assortative mating and fertility, and current patterns of interracial fertility are also addressed in this volume. By combining up-to-date research spanning the entire field to illuminate contemporary developments, the book is a valuable source for demographers, sociologists, economists, and all those interested in understanding fertility in today's world.

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Part I: Contemporary Perspectives on Fertility.- Chapter 2. Social capital, gender competition, and the resurgence of childlessness.- Chapter 3. Uncertainty and narratives of the future: A theoretical framework for contemporary fertility.-  Chapter 4. Social contagion effects in fertility: Theory and analytical strategy.- Chapter 5. The context of interracial childbearing in the United States.- Part II: Fertility Intentions.- Chapter 6. Do reproductive attitudes and knowledge explain race-ethnic-nativity differences in unintended fertility?.- Chapter 7. Regional fertility differences in India.- Part III: The Demography of Multipartner Fertility.- Chapter 8. Multi-partner fertility in Europe and the United States.- Chapter 9. Welfare regimes and fertility in second unions.- Chapter 10.- Years spent as mothers of young children: The role of completed fertility, birth spacing, and multiple partner fertility.- Chapter 11.- Where’s daddy? Challenges in the measurement of men’s fertility.- Part IV: Issues of Measurement.- Chapter 12. Measuring the prevalence of multipartner fertility independent of fertility level. Chapter 13. Cross-sectional average length of life by parity: Illustration of U.S. cohorts of reproductive age in 2015.