Childlessness among men in Australia

This paper examines childlessness in later adult life among males in Australia. The data are from 1,610 males aged 45-59 interviewed in 2001 for Wave 1 of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, a large-scale, nationwide, longitudinal survey of the household population. Staged logistic regression models are used to identify the early lifecourse antecedents of a man being childless in later life and the mediating effects of work-related variables and duration of union. The results show that the father's and mother's occupations, the level and type of education, and birthplace are important early lifecourse antecedents of whether a man is childless in later life. The lengths of time a man has been in married and cohabiting and his current occupation are found shown to have significant relationships with whether he is childless.