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Title: How is Motherhood Associated Waistline at Midlife? Women's Fertility History and Body Weight at 40s
Resulting in 1 citation.
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Zhang, Zhe |
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How is Motherhood Associated Waistline at Midlife? Women's Fertility History and Body Weight at 40s Presented: Montreal, QC, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2017 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: American Sociological Association Keyword(s): Age at Birth; Body Mass Index (BMI); Fertility; Motherhood; Weight Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. Motherhood is highly associated with women's wellbeing, but few studies examine how motherhood and a complete fertility history are connected with women's midlife wellbeing in the most recent cohort. This study uses NLSY79 (N=3,889) to examine motherhood status and fertility history across women’s body weight at 40s. Findings suggest that childless women have higher body weight than mothers, but mothers are not all the same. Mothers with two children are the most advantaged group in terms of their higher SES background as well as lower body weight at midlife. Mothers' fertility history, particularly age at first birth, parity, and age at last birth, are associated with their midlife body weight. A positive effect of parity and a positive effect of age at last birth are found on midlife body weight, as well as an interaction between the two variables. Socioeconomic status and psychological distress explain partial relationship between fertility history and midlife BMI. I conclude that motherhood contributes to body weight differences at midlife among the contemporary cohort of U.S. women. Future studies should consider the heterogeneity of motherhood in relation to health disparities among women. |
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Bibliography Citation
Zhang, Zhe. "How is Motherhood Associated Waistline at Midlife? Women's Fertility History and Body Weight at 40s." Presented: Montreal, QC, American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, August 2017. |