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International Journal of
Population Studies Drivers of reproductive delay in the UK

was statistically significant, at least for the highest level relationship and a partner who was ready to have
(parents fully able and willing to help with childcare), children
but the other attributes were clearly preferred. The lowest (iv) Location: This was the only group to prioritize
partnership level was being single so the large odds ratio neighborhood quality and it was expressed as a safe
for this attribute can be interpreted as a very strong and green environment for children.
preference to avoid lone parenting. Even being in a fairly Figure 1 shows that neighborhood quality came up as
new relationship (level 2) was much preferred to being the most important priority for this group of men while
single and was more important than the highest level of partner support was ranked second with finances appearing
family support, suggesting that couple relationships are to be less important than the focus groups suggested. Again,
the highest priority for these women. This is reflected in this group was less forthcoming in the qualitative analysis
the WTP results (Figure 2) which show that women are so this discrepancy could be a function of less reliable data
prepared to wait around 10 years (129 months) to have a to design the DCE with, or it could be that these rankings
stable relationship. Recall that the age group of these women reflect reality in the larger UK population. As shown in
was 18 – 33 years so a 10-year delay for a 33-year-old female Figure 2, these men are willing to wait around 7 years before
would push her to her fertility boundaries. Finances were committing to fatherhood to live in a safe and child-friendly
also very important here, with women forgoing around neighborhood. The confidence intervals for all attribute
seven reproductive years for financial security. levels for this group are rather large indicating that there is
3.3. University-educated men more uncertainty around the reproductive delay.
Focus group data revealed that the four most important As a further exploratory investigation, whether there
attributes for university men were as follows: were differences between people who were starting
(i) Partner ready: This was framed as the partner being or growing a family was tested. For women, there was
committed to the relationship and ready to have a baby no difference in their priorities nor their ranking of
(ii) Job flexibility: This was about work-life balance and importance, although there were small differences in effect
benefits such as a company car and a good holiday sizes. For childless women, each of the attributes was a
allowance little less important than for women who were already
(iii) Home: This was about owning a good home mothers. For men, the difference was that baby timing was
(iv) Finances: Like other groups, these men wanted significant for aspirant first-time fathers only, not for men
financial security but were also concerned about who were already fathers. However, the rankings of the
having savings for long-term goals. attributes remained the same across both groups.
We removed three men who claimed to have completed 4. Discussion
a university degree but who were 19 years old. This left a
sample size of 180. The DCE results match the focus group DCE methodology was used to unpack and explore the
findings very closely. By far, the most important factor was complex decision-making process underlying the desire
having a supportive partner who was ready for children. for children. Discrete choice modeling is a forward-facing
All other attributes ranked as expected and were relatively technique that allows us to focus on the decision-making
similar in scale with odds ratios between 1.5 and 2. To process itself rather than looking back and correlating
have a fully supportive and ready partner, university men things in peoples’ earlier lives with their eventual fertility
would give up over 7 years before having a baby. Other outcomes. Using qualitative data to design the experiments,
things ranged from 1 year for owning a home to 4 years for and administering the online experiment to a nationally
a supportive partner where the relationship was still quite representative sample of participants, I was able to identify
new compared with a more difficult couple relationship. the specific barriers that are of the highest concern to
people who want (more) children in the UK today, rank
3.4. Non-university-educated men them in order of priority, and estimate the size of the
Non-university men expressed their four most important distance between them.
attributes as: We know that education is correlated with delayed
(i) Finances: This was framed in terms of personal income fertility but that observation masks what is going on
and being able to cover more immediate needs such as within educational groups. For women, the two groups
buying a car showed fascinating differences, for one, the age at which
(ii) Home: This was about home ownership postponement becomes a priority is entirely different.
(iii) Partner support: This was less important than to other Only at age 33, were university women expressing that the
groups and was expressed as having a committed delay in having children was most important which means

Volume 11 Issue 3 (2025) 132 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.3600