# Adult Children’s Timing of Entry into Parenthood: Parental Investment, Education, and Gender

## TL;DR

Highly educated people have children later, and parental contact influences when adult children become parents, depending on education and gender.

## Contribution

This study explores how maternal and paternal investment affects the timing of parenthood for adult children by education level and gender.

## Key findings

- Contact with mothers correlates with earlier parenthood in less-educated individuals and later parenthood in highly educated individuals.
- Fathers' contact is linked to later parenthood in currently enrolled individuals and earlier parenthood in highly educated sons.
- Parental investment can both contribute to and counteract Europe's fertility decline by affecting the age at first birth.

## Abstract

Highly educated individuals have their first child at later ages compared to less-educated individuals, and parental investment is associated with the childbearing of adult children. However, no studies have explored the association between maternal and paternal investment and the timing of parenthood for adult daughters and sons, and whether this association varies by education level. Based on the parenthood penalty and life-history theory, it is hypothesized that parental investment decreases the age at first birth of highly educated adult children and increases the age at first birth of less educated and those currently enrolled in education, particularly between mothers and adult daughters. Event-history analyses were conducted on 4,111 participants and 894 first births from 13 waves of the longitudinal and population-based German Family Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics Study (Pairfam). Results show that contact with mothers was associated with earlier parenthood in less-educated adult children and later parenthood in highly educated adult children. However, contact with fathers was associated with later parenthood in currently enrolled adult children and earlier parenthood in highly educated adult sons. Europe's fertility decline is largely due to delayed age at first birth and parental investment in adult children can contribute to and counteract this trend.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12110-025-09502-z.