ABSTRACT
Introduction I agree with the conclusion stated by Jennifer Barber and Bill Axinn that social scientists who study childbearing would benefit from greater emphasis on social psychological explanations of behavior. They emphasize the role of attitudespredispositions to behave-in the development of childbearing and related behavior, and they assess the role of “attitudes” in hazard-rate models of the timing of non-marital and marital first births (see also Barber, 2000, 2001). They argue in support of four conclusions: (1) that more positive attitudes toward childbearing are predictive of childbearing, (2) that positive attitudes toward activities that compete with childbearing predict reductions in childbearing, (3) that attitudes predict across generational lines, from mother to child, suggesting the importance of reference groups for the development of behavior, and (4) that given the influence of attitudes on behavior, social changes in attitudes can be expected to bring about changes in behavior.
