Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Demography. 2013 Aug;50(4):1399-420. doi: 10.1007/s13524-012-0186-9.
Despite the large body of research on educational differences in fertility, how genetic and environmental influences may contribute to educational differences in completed fertility is not well understood. This study examines the association between educational level and completed fertility in a sample of Finnish male and female twins born between 1950 and 1957 with register-based fertility follow-up until 2009. The results show that poorly educated men and highly educated women are least likely to have any children and have lower completed fertility in general. Behavioral genetics analysis suggests that the association between education and having any children in both sexes is influenced by factors shared by co-twins and that these factors are genetic rather than common environmental. No evidence of a causal pathway between education and having any children independent of these shared influences is found. These findings suggest that familial factors may play a role in the process through which educational differences in completed fertility are formed.
尽管有大量关于生育方面教育差异的研究，但遗传和环境因素如何影响生育完成方面的教育差异尚不清楚。本研究考察了芬兰出生于 1950 年至 1957 年的男性和女性双胞胎样本中教育水平与生育完成之间的关联，这些双胞胎的生育情况通过登记数据进行了 2009 年之前的跟踪。结果表明，教育程度低的男性和受教育程度高的女性最不可能有孩子，且整体生育完成率较低。行为遗传学分析表明，两性中教育与生育的关联受到同卵双胞胎共享因素的影响，这些因素是遗传的而非共同环境的。在没有这些共同影响的情况下，没有发现教育与生育之间存在因果关系的证据。这些发现表明，家庭因素可能在形成生育完成方面教育差异的过程中发挥作用。
