The Effect of Unintended Birth on Parenting

Nan M. Astone, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Suzumi Yasutake, Johns Hopkins University
Jacinda K. Dariotis, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Joseph H. Pleck, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Freya Sonenstein, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

We examine the impact of the intention status of a child on the mother’s and the father’s parenting experiences. In one set of analyses, the focus is on within-parent comparisons. We test whether parents report lower educational aspirations for, lower quality relationships with, or lower levels of exchange with children reported as unintended than they do for children reported as intended. We also examine whether parents with any unwanted births have lower evaluations of their parental performance and satisfaction than parents with no unintended children. Our paper focuses on the following general research questions: 1)Is there a negative association between having an unintended child and various indicators of parenting? 2)If so, is there evidence that this association is causal? 3)Does this association vary for men and women, parental age at birth, parents’ marital status at birth, or children’s age?