The importance of child characteristics: children’s health and mothers’ subsequent childbearing

Existing literature rarely includes child characteristics as a predictor variable when investigating family life events. Using data from the Danish Longitudinal Survey of Children, this study follows a representative sample of the Danish 1995 birth cohort and their families (N = 4990) in order to examine the role of children’s disability and long-term illness in families’ subsequent childbearing. When accounting for the severity and timing of children’s disability or long-term illness, results reveal children’s health to be negatively related to subsequent childbearing in Danish families. This study demonstrates that child characteristics play a significant role in subsequent childbearing. Thus, to only question core family life events, such as childbearing, as a function of parental characteristics neglects an understanding of the importance of dynamic connections between children and parents’ lives in contemporary families. This study contributes to a growing literature on family consequences of children’s disabilities. It extends previous research by investigating the roles of children’s health in an alternative context, and it is the first study to use a dynamic approach to examine children’s health and families’ subsequent childbearing beyond transition to second childbirth.