Martin Kolk

Attitudes towards childbearing, population, and the environment: prevalence, correlates, and connections with fertility outcomes in Sweden - Population and Environment

Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

Read the paper by Kirsti Jylhä, myself, and @mfair.bsky.social‬, for many more details, more models, and more thoughts on the complex relationships between peoples views on population, reproduction, and how they are related.

doi.org/10.1007/s111...

Environmental concerns may influence personal fertility decisions and general opinions about childbearing and population dynamics, but research on this topic remains scarce. In two analyses based on l...

doi.org

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Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

However, the widespread agreement to link childbearing with environmental concerns could influence societal norms, and future policy debates on reproduction and sustainability.

Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

We conclude that while environmental concerns are shaping how people think about population and childbearing, these attitudes haven't yet led to widespread changes in family size and fertility preferences in Sweden.

Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

People with greater climate worry and propensity for climate action are more likely to be worried about the future of a child living in a deteriorating world, than that an additional child may contribute negatively towards such a future. We find weak correlations with political attitudes and trust.

Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

Different eco-reproductive concerns are moderately correlated with each other, and relatively weakly correlated with whether people have children or not. We find that the same people largely support policies reducing population both in their own country, and in developing countries.

Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

People generally agreed both factors are important.While 65-70% of respondents said in principle that environmental problems should factor into childbearing decisions, fewer went as far as saying that individuals should limit the sizes of their families for environmental reasons.

Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

In a second study, with over 600 participants, we asked how much environmental factors should influence childbearing decisions - both the possible impact of a worsening environment on the child, and that an additional child may contribute to an increasing population that may worsen the environment.

Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

We find that younger people and women are more worried about climate change, while men are more concerned about overpopulation. Parents with more children tend to be more concerned about future generations but less worried about overpopulation.

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Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

Our first data set is 8,000 respondents in the Swedish Gender and Generation Survey. Respondents were asked about worries such as climate change, overpopulation, and the prospects of future generations. Worries about three things are widespread.

Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

The study focuses on eco-reproductive concerns—the idea that environmental challenges should influence personal and societal views on childbearing.

Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

We do not find that individual decisions about having children are clearly shaped by environmental concerns, but many people believe such concerns should play a role in reproductive choices.

Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

In our new study in Population and Environment, we examine how environmental concerns shape public attitudes toward childbearing in Sweden. We find views linking environmental concerns with reproduction are widespread, even if we find less support that they affect behavior.

doi.org/10.1007/s111...

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by Martin Kolk — Reposted by: Andreas Bergh

Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

Much of the increasing gender gap is compositional, with increasing shares of migrants with larger gender gaps, increasing the employment gap in the population.

Among Swedish men and women, employment has decreased, but much less.

Different time series 2005-2024 (with different age categories)

Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

And here is the same figure for age 16-64. Essentially the same pattern, though more dramatic decline in employment (due to more enrolled students at younger ages).

Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

Sweden reached near gender parity in employment in the late 1980s, and if anything, the gender gap has increased since then.

There used to be near-universal employment among Swedish men, with Swedish women nearly catching up in the 1980s.

Swedish labor force survey, age 35-44.

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by Martin Kolk — Reposted by: Vegard Skirbekk

DN Debatt. ”Höj barnbidraget – unga familjer måste prioriteras”

Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

I dag publicerades min artikel på DN Debatt där jag argumenterar för en höjning, och beskattning av barnbidraget, baserat på att vi ser ökade socioekonomiska skillnader i föräldraskap.

www.dn.se/debatt/hoj-b...

DN Debatt. I takt med att barnafödandet minskar bör barnbidraget höjas och göras skattepliktigt, skriver Martin Kolk, docent i demografi.

www.dn.se

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Reposted by: Martin Kolk

Demographic Research

@demresjournal.bsky.social

Which religion you follow matters for life expectancy. Even in a secular country such as Finland, there are differences of up to six years between different denominations.
www.demographic-research.org/articles/vol...
@martinkolk.bsky.social

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Reposted by: Martin Kolk

Abdel Abdellaoui

@dr-appie.bsky.social

Did you get a chance to read the thread on our new @naturehumbehav.bsky.social paper on SES yet?

If not, don't worry, I have something better for you!

Check out this comic by the amazing @lizahaart.bsky.social

Complete comic: communities.springernature.com/posts/are-we...

Or in this thread 👇🏾

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Reposted by: Martin Kolk, Andrea Cattaneo

Ryan Briggs

@ryancbriggs.net

I think the current state of social science research is pretty bad and I wrote something for @asteriskmag.bsky.social about it. asteriskmag.com/issues/10/ca...

Text from an article:

Given the current state of evidence production in the social sciences, I believe that many - perhaps most - attempts to use social scientific evidence to inform policy will not lead to better outcomes.
This is not because of politics or the challenges of scaling small programs. The problem is more immediate. Much of social science research is of poor quality, and sorting the trustworthy work from bad work is difficult, costly, and time-consuming.

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Forskaren: Inget problem med färre barn

Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

Se en ny artikel i Svenska Dagbladet där jag intervjuades om huruvida de senaste 10-årens sjunkande barnafödande är ett socioekonomiskt problem eller inte.

www.svd.se/a/4BpQ96/for...

Det låga barnafödandet i Sverige gäckar regeringen, som nu har tillsatt en utredning. Men utredningens problemformulering ifrågasätts av demografiforskaren Martin Kolk. ”Personligen tycker jag inte at...

www.svd.se

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Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

Take away: Using register data to study religion allows novel research with longitudinal designs.

Register data reveal that wedding linked conversions sustain high endogamy even in secular societies.

Full open access preprint at:

doi.org/10.17045/sth...

Martin Kolk

@martinkolk.bsky.social

However, women are not consistently more endogamous, nor are they always less likely to switch. Patterns depend on the strictness and size of the denomination.