Gl. Oates, SELF-ESTEEM ENHANCEMENT THROUGH FERTILITY - SOCIOECONOMIC PROSPECTS, GENDER, AND MUTUAL INFLUENCE, American sociological review, 62(6), 1997, pp. 965-973
I analyze data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY),
using a LISREL model to examine whether having children influences one
's self-esteem, whether the effect of children on self-esteem is stron
ger among the less socioeconomically privileged and among women, and w
hether there is evidence of mutual influence in the relationship betwe
en having children and self-esteem. I find that the number of children
does not affect self-esteem, this holds true for both women and men,
and for different socioeconomic groups. There is no evidence of nonlin
earity in the relationship between number of children and self-esteem.
Further, self-esteem does not affect whether men or women have childr
en.