Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2022

DOI

10.1177/23780231221142969

Publication Title

Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World

Volume

8

Pages

1-16

Abstract

Women have many reproductive options, but little is known about their regrets regarding prior reproductive choices and outcomes. Guided by the life-course and stratified reproduction perspectives, this study draws on an open-ended question about reproductive regrets from wave I of the National Survey of Fertility Barriers, a representative telephone survey of reproductive aged U.S. women conducted from 2004 to 2006. The authors classified regrets into five broad categories: (1) none, (2) problematic fertility, (3) unfulfilled fertility desires, (4) family, and (5) pregnancy experiences. The authors conducted the analyses separately by motherhood status. Logistic regression analysis revealed that regardless of parental status, those who were older, had infertility, or were experiencing economic hardship were more likely to report reproductive regrets. The authors also investigated factors associated with the likelihood of expressing specific reproductive regrets. In general, the present findings confirm expectations based on the life-course and stratified reproduction perspectives.

Rights

© The Author(s) 2022.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.

Original Publication Citation

Greil, A. L., Lowry, M. H., Burch, A. R., Slauson-Blevins, K., Park, N., & McQuillan, J. (2022). Reproductive regrets among a population-based sample of U.S. women. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 8, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231221142969

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