Wendy Manning
@wendymanning.bsky.social
460 followers 270 following 25 posts
I am a family demographer (aka population scientist) with a focus on American family and fertility patterns. Co-PI of NCHAT and co-director of NCFMR.
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wendymanning.bsky.social
Divorce rate decline continues… we have been documenting these trends alongside marriage. @ncfmr-bgsu.bsky.social www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resour...
wendymanning.bsky.social
Three out of five recent newlyweds cohabited prior to marriage. www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resour... @ncfmr-bgsu.bsky.social
Reposted by Wendy Manning
karenguzzo.bsky.social
Another new paper on fertility intentions! Using @nchatstudy.bsky.social data, we consider whether cohabiting & married people's short-term fertility intentions are subjective perceptions of well-being.

The answer? Yes! 1/

link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
As fertility rates in the U.S. and elsewhere continue to fall, standard demographic theories that focus on objective micro- and macroeconomic conditions seem unable to explain these trends. New approaches, such as the Narrative of the Future framework and the “uncertainty” paradigm, have emphasized the potential for subjective perceptions to be important for fertility decision-making, net of objective characteristics. We use a unique new source of data—the National Couples’ Health and Time Study, a nationally representative sample of cohabiting and married adults interviewed between September 2020 and April 2021—to examine short-term fertility intentions and better understand if and how including a general subjective evaluation (overall life satisfaction) and domain-specific subjective evaluations (economic stress and relationship satisfaction) are related to fertility intentions. We find that most respondents did not intend to have a child in the next year, though about one in seven respondents were unsure about if/when to have a(nother) child. Net of objective characteristics, overall life satisfaction was positively associated with short-term intentions to have a child, and greater economic stress was linked to uncertainty about short-term intentions. We did not observe a link in multivariable models between relationship satisfaction and intentions. Further, models stratified by parenthood indicated that both objective characteristics and subjective perceptions were more strongly linked to first-birth intentions than higher-parity intentions. Our results add to the growing body of work suggesting that (a) subjective perceptions have modest but significant links to fertility decision-making and (b) uncertainty in decision-making is important to consider.
wendymanning.bsky.social
4% of marriages each year are now to same-sex marriage! 10 years of love wins! www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resour...
wendymanning.bsky.social
Want to know more about same-sex couples? Check out our work. www.bgsu.edu/content/dam/...
www.bgsu.edu
Reposted by Wendy Manning
Reposted by Wendy Manning
karenguzzo.bsky.social
It's also worth noting that when women aged 40 and over have a birth, their partners are usually over 40, too. We don't often talk about delayed parenthood among men, but it's definitely happening. 3/3 www.bgsu.edu/ncfmr/resour...
Figure showing the distribution of paternal age of births to women who had a birth aged 40 and older.
Reposted by Wendy Manning
aaronsojourner.org
EXTREMELY BAD NEWS for economic research, per former BLS Commissioner @ericagroshen.bsky.social on LinkedIn.

BLS is suspending access to its restricted data "for the forseeable future." Applies to projects through the Federal Statistical Research Data Centers & onsite projects with BLS.
#EconSky
Reposted by Wendy Manning
karenguzzo.bsky.social
New paper alert on - you guessed it - childbearing decision-making!

@srhayford.bsky.social & I evaluate if people's perceptions of their personal lives & how things are going more broadly are associated with whether they thought it was likely they would have a(nother) child. 1/
CHAPTER 6
SUBJECTIVE EVALUATIONS OF PERSONAL AND PUBLIC WELL-BEING AND EXPECTED FUTURE CHILDBEARING
Karen Benjamin Guzzo and Sarah R. Hayford




ABSTRACT
Since the Great Recession, birth rates have fallen steadily in the United States and other 
high-income countries, even as macroeconomic conditions improved and have since remained largely 
positive. To understand this surprising juxta- position, scholars are increasingly turning to 
subjective measures of current and future conditions, hypothesizing that worries about potential 
negative futures may lead to lower birth rates even when economic conditions are good. Building on 
this literature, we use survey data from the American Trends Panel (ATP; n = 3,696) to assess how 
respondents’ satisfaction with their own lives, their understanding of challenges facing young 
people, their beliefs about problems in their community, and their predictions of future COVID-19 
impacts are associated with their expectations for having children. Results show that people who 
are more dissatisfied with their own lives are less likely to expect a child, controlling for other 
perceptions as well as objective sociodemographic char- acteristics. Further analyses reveal that 
this association is largely restricted to
childless women.
wendymanning.bsky.social
Data were collected before Trump took office. I wonder how some responses have changed.
Reposted by Wendy Manning
tiffanylgreen.bsky.social
Are you a grad student or postdoc stressing out about job talks? Join me on 6/26/25 at 2 PM CST for a free class. You'll learn how to:
✔️ Avoid the “Big 3” job talk killers
✔️ Use storytelling breath life into your research
✔️ Handle Q&A like a boss

Register here and please share: lnkd.in/g5f3YwtX
“Job talk got you stressed? I can help. Free Masterclass: Making Academic Job Talks Fun | June 26, 2025, 2 PM CST | 60 minutes of strategy, support, & clarity. Register now!" Zoom registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/3c9_zpsFSsSy6mfv0fmmAQ
wendymanning.bsky.social
Folks should appeal! Some universities don’t have resources or are not interested but it is important to appeal.
davidimiller.bsky.social
🧪 UPDATE: NSF just opened itself even further to lawsuit.

Yesterday, it doubled down on the false claim that its 1,000+ grant terminations are "not subject to appeal."

See question 16 here, published Friday afternoon: www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...

A brief thread... 🧵
davidimiller.bsky.social
🧪 Tip: You have the right to contest a grant termination, even though NSF says you don't. 🧵

On Friday, NSF terminated 402 grants (per Musk's DOGE).

The notification letters had one of the most egregious violations of fed regulations I've seen so far in these cases:

"not subject to appeal"
Reposted by Wendy Manning
nchatstudy.bsky.social
One last NCHAT poster presentation today at 10:30am in the Ballrooms! Go check out the poster by
@chrisajulian.bsky.social @wendymanning.bsky.social, Alex VanBergen, and
@clairekampdush.bsky.social on Collecting Dyadic Data on LGBTQ+ Partnerships!
Reposted by Wendy Manning
lgbtqhealthexce.bsky.social
This analysis of canceled NIH grants really hits home.
“According to a Bloomberg Opinion analysis, more than half of the 550 grants terminated over the last six weeks by the NIH addressed LGBTQ health somehow,” writes @lisamjarvis.bsky.social #LGBTQ #HealthEquity #PublicHealth #MedSky
The Very Idea of LGBTQ Health Is Under Attack
The Trump administration has canceled millions of dollars in grants to study disparities affecting the well-being of the community. Valuable research has been lost.
buff.ly