Background

Like other Latin American countries, over the past half-century, Colombia has experienced rapid urbanization, dramatic fertility decline, and massive educational expansion. These socio-demographic changes have transformed gender roles and, with them, the landscape surrounding reproductive decisions, family life, and opportunities in other life ‘domains.’ I draw on the ‘life course cube’ (LCC) approach, which frames individual actions within a multidimensional behavioral process shaped by interdependencies between time, life domains, and levels to explore Colombian male childlessness.

Objective

I seek to answer two questions: How does Colombian non-fatherhood vary across the life course (with respect to overall prevalence and associated factors)? and How do men frame their non-fatherhood, and, especially, how do they envision a future without children?

Methodology

To address the first question, I used the 2015 Colombian Demographic and Health Survey’s men’s dataset (N > 30,000) to explore the overall level of male childlessness across age/generational groups and separate voluntary/involuntary childlessness. Then, using generalized linear models, I analyzed the relationships between different life domains (e.g. education, employment) and non-fatherhood at time points representing early-, mid-, and later-life childlessness (among men in their thirties, forties, and fifties). To address the second question, I used qualitative data from in-depth life history interviews I conducted with male (N = 7) and female (N = 28) parents/non-parents in Bogotá, analyzing connections between different ‘levels’ of men’s experiences: their inner feelings, past and (envisioned) future actions, and societal factors framing childlessness.

Results and discussion

The quantitative findings indicate that male childlessness across the adult life course is strongly associated with later start of first union/never entering a union, and with small ideal family size. Later-life, definitive childlessness is also strongly associated with relative economic disadvantage and lower-prestige occupations, though early-life fatherhood postponement is not. Qualitatively, interviewed men expressed more worry and less preparation for the future than childless women. Understanding ‘vulnerability’ as ‘the dynamics of stress and resources across the life course’, I discuss these findings, paying attention to older non-fathers’ potential psycho-social, relational, and socioeconomic vulnerability. Therefore, this work seeks to contribute to the literature on the determinants and experiences of male childlessness, focusing on a Latin American perspective.

中文翻译：

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成年后男性无子女：一项针对潜在“弱势”人群的案例研究

背景

与其他拉丁美洲国家一样，在过去的半个世纪里，哥伦比亚经历了快速城市化、生育率急剧下降和大规模教育扩张。这些社会人口变化改变了性别角色，并随之改变了围绕生育决定、家庭生活和其他生活“领域”的机会的格局。我借鉴了“生命历程立方体”(LCC) 方法，该方法将个人行为框定在由时间、生活领域和水平之间的相互依存关系形成的多维行为过程中，以探索哥伦比亚男性的无子女现象。

客观的

我试图回答两个问题：哥伦比亚的非父亲身份在整个生命过程中有何不同（就总体流行率和相关因素而言）？男人如何看待他们的非父亲身份，尤其是他们如何设想没有孩子的未来？

方法

为了解决第一个问题，我使用了 2015 年哥伦比亚人口与健康调查的男性数据集（N > 30,000）来探讨男性无子女跨年龄/代际群体的总体水平以及自愿/非自愿无子女的情况。然后，使用广义线性模型，我分析了不同生活领域（例如教育、就业）与非父亲身份在代表早年、中期和晚年无子女的时间点之间的关系（在 30 岁、40 岁和 40 岁的男性中）五十年代）。为了解决第二个问题，我使用了来自波哥大男性（N = 7）和女性（N = 28）父母/非父母的深入生活史访谈的定性数据，分析了男性不同“水平”之间的联系经验：他们的内心感受，过去和（设想的）未来的行为，

结果与讨论

定量研究结果表明，男性在整个成年生命过程中没有孩子与第一次结合的较晚开始/从未进入结合以及理想家庭规模较小密切相关。晚年，确定没有孩子也与相对经济劣势和声望较低的职业密切相关，尽管早年父亲身份推迟并非如此。从质量上讲，与没有孩子的女性相比，接受采访的男性对未来表示更多的担忧和更少的准备。将“脆弱性”理解为“生命历程中压力和资源的动态”，我讨论了这些发现，关注年长的非父亲的潜在心理社会、关系和社会经济脆弱性。因此，这项工作旨在为有关男性无子女的决定因素和经历的文献做出贡献，