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Author: Frisco, Michelle
Resulting in 3 citations.
1. Frisco, Michelle
Weden, Margaret M.
Early Adult Obesity and U.S. Women's Lifetime Childbearing Experiences
Journal of Marriage and Family 75,4 (August 2013): 920-932.
Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jomf.12049/abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing, Inc. => Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Childbearing; Fertility; Obesity; Weight

Literature from multiple disciplines suggests that women who are obese during early adulthood may accumulate social and physiological impediments to childbearing across their reproductive lives. This led the authors to investigate whether obese young women have different lifetime childbearing experiences than leaner peers by analyzing data from 1,658 female participants in the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Study sample members were nulliparous women ages 20–25 in 1982. The authors examined their childbearing experiences between 1982 and 2006 and found that young women who were obese at baseline had higher odds of remaining childless and increased odds of underachieving fertility intentions than young women who were normal weight at baseline. These results suggest that obesity has long-term ramifications for women's childbearing experiences with respect to whether and how many children women have in general and relative to the number of children they want.
Bibliography Citation
Frisco, Michelle and Margaret M. Weden. "Early Adult Obesity and U.S. Women's Lifetime Childbearing Experiences." Journal of Marriage and Family 75,4 (August 2013): 920-932.
2. Frisco, Michelle
Weden, Margaret M.
Lippert, Adam M.
Burnett, Kristin
The Multidimensional Relationship Between Early Adult Body Weight and Women’s Childbearing Experiences
Social Science and Medicine 74,11 (June 2012): 1703-1711.
Also: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21944717
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Elsevier
Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Childbearing; Marital Status; Obesity; Weight; Women

This study has three primary goals that make an important contribution to the literature on body weight and childbearing experiences among United States’ women. It sheds light on the physiological and social nature of this relationship by examining whether the consequences of early adult weight for lifetime childbearing are shaped by historical social context, women’s social characteristics, and their ability to marry. We analyze data from two female cohorts who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY79). Cohort 1 entered early adulthood before the U.S. obesity prevalence increased. Cohort 2 entered early adulthood after the obesity prevalence increased. We find that early adult weight is negatively related to the childbearing trajectories and marital status of Cohort 1 but not Cohort 2. Failing to account for race/ethnicity and women’s educational background as confounders masks some of these associations, which are evident for both White and Black women. Our results suggest that the health consequences of body weight do not fully drive its impact on childbearing. Rather, the lifetime fertility consequences of early adult weight are malleable, involve social processes, and are dependent on social context.

Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Bibliography Citation
Frisco, Michelle, Margaret M. Weden, Adam M. Lippert and Kristin Burnett. "The Multidimensional Relationship Between Early Adult Body Weight and Women’s Childbearing Experiences." Social Science and Medicine 74,11 (June 2012): 1703-1711.
3. Frisco, Michelle
Weden, Margaret M.
Lippert, Adam M.
Burnett, Kristin
The Shifting Burden of Body Weight for Women's Childbearing Experiences
Presented: Washington, DC, Population Association of America Annual Meetings, March 31-April 2, 2011
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Body Mass Index (BMI); Childbearing; Fertility; Obesity; Weight; Women

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Clinical research indicates that obesity impedes conception. Less is understood about population-level links between weight and women's childbearing trajectories, the social component of this association, or whether it is malleable over time. This study examines these issues. Analysis of data from the NLSY79 female sample shows how weight and childbearing trajectories are linked among two cohorts of women who experienced similar historical fertility contexts but different normative weight contexts. We find that BMI is negatively related to Cohort 1's childbearing trajectories but not Cohort 2's. These cohort differences suggest that biological factors alone do not drive the overall impact of obesity on fertility. Rather, the fertility consequences of obesity among U.S. women of childbearing age has been, and may continue to be, malleable over time and due in part to social processes.
Bibliography Citation
Frisco, Michelle, Margaret M. Weden, Adam M. Lippert and Kristin Burnett. "The Shifting Burden of Body Weight for Women's Childbearing Experiences." Presented: Washington, DC, Population Association of America Annual Meetings, March 31-April 2, 2011.