First, to reduce the chance of early parenthood, which adversely affects the economic prospects of both men and (especially) women.
A major social and health problem, particularly in inner city areas, is pregnancy in women under 16 years, or even single parenthood.
Such assortative pairing between similar individuals is likely to reinforce commonalities and give rise to similar life course outcomes, including an earlier onset of parenthood.
The figure shows the observed rates of parenthood for males and females for each level of the risk factor score.
The strength of association between the risk of parenthood and the risk factor was assessed using the log-rank test.
Similarly, the childless respondents were more inclined to minimize the inconvenience of parenthood, but between the two groups the differences were not significant.
A variety of other possible benefits are conditional in some measure on contemporary views about parenthood and biology.
Finally, these findings may reflect differences in expectations, either conscious or unconscious, of parenthood as a result of earlier experiences of family life patterns.
