Agreement in Swedish childless couples' reproductive intentions in relation to age.

OBJECTIVE

to investigate the agreement in Swedish childless couples' reproductive intentions, in terms of (1) expecting to have children or not, (2) time point for a first child, and (3) number of children, in relation to age.

DESIGN

cross-sectional data from the Swedish Young Adult Panel Study in 2009.

SETTING

Sweden.

PARTICIPANTS

216 childless couples (216 women and 216 men)

MEASUREMENTS: questionnaire data on reproductive intentions. Descriptive analyses including Cohen's kappa were conducted for all couples, both for younger and older couples, where the woman was below or above the mean age for having the first child in Sweden, namely ≤ 28 years (younger) and ≥ 29 years (older).

FINDINGS: agreement in the partners' expectations whether to have children or not was substantial but far from perfect (κ=0.69), and it was higher in older couples (κ=0.70) than in younger ones (κ=0.51). Compared with younger couples, a higher proportion of older couples agreed not to have children or were uncertain (32% versus 5%; p<0.001). Overall, there was moderate agreement concerning the intended time point for a first child (κ=0.60), also when younger couples (κ=0.54) and older couples (κ=0.57) were analysed separately. On the other hand, there was only a slight agreement between the partners' responses concerning the desired number of children (κ=0.00), and in general the woman wanted more children.

KEY

CONCLUSIONS

Swedish couples are in substantial agreement on if and when to have children, especially the older couples. However, the female partner is more likely than her male partner to be the one wanting the most children.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: partners' individual and mutual desires should be taken into account in reproductive counselling.