Family scholars from across the nation will converge on Penn State on October 9-10 for the Penn State Annual National Family Symposium to examine the reasons for depressed fertility and the factors people consider when deciding whether or not to have children and when to have them.
The symposium will be held at the Nittany Lion Inn on Penn State's University Park campus. This year it is titled "Creating the Next Generation: Social, Economic, and Psychological Processes Underlying Fertility in Developed Countries." Symposium speakers and discussants will consider what led to these contemporary fertility patterns and what they portend for union formation, the well-being of children and adults, and the integrity of society as a whole, now and in the future.
The symposium, organized by Alan Booth, distinguished professor of sociology, human development and demography, and Ann C. Crouter, professor of human development and family studies, both of Penn State, will be structured around four important issues that underlie these changes.
S. Philip Morgan, Duke University, will explore contemporary patterns and trends in U.S. fertility, focusing on where we have come from and where we may be headed. Jennifer Barber and William Axinn, University of Michigan, will examine how social and cultural values and attitudes shape fertility patterns in the developed world. Elizabeth Thomson, University of Wisconsin, will analyze the factors explaining how fertility has become uncoupled from marriage. Christine Bachrach, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; Lynn White; University of Nebraska; and Daniel Lichter, Oh
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Contact: William Harnish
William@pop.psu.edu
Penn State
18-Aug-2003