Race/ethnicity, fertility intentions, and well-being : The importance of occupational characteristics in American women's lives.

Although research from the organizational and psychological fields suggests that many characteristics of occupations are related to various dimensions of well-being, there are several major limitations of previous studies.

First, due to data limitations, research has typically examined only one characteristic at a time, or it has examined numerous characteristics of a specific occupation.

Additionally, virtually all studies of the effects of occupational characteristics have relied on respondent's self-reports of their occupational characteristics, which can create bias.

Despite decades of research on the negative relationship between women's employment and their relationship, virtually no studies have attempted to ascertain what it is about work, beyond work hours, that reduces fertility.

Finally, despite knowledge that occupations are highly segregated by race/ethnicity, research has failed to examine how occupational characteristics might differ by race/ethnicity and that outcomes associated with working in occupations with specific characteristics may differ by race/ethnicity.

The studies presented here expand on prior studies by linking data from the Department of Labor's Occupational Information Network (O*NET) with the National Survey of Fertility and Infertility (NSFI).

The O*NET is a database of over one hundred characteristics for nearly one thousand occupations.

Randomly selected employees working in each occupation responded to standardized questionnaires regarding the characteristics of their occupations.

The NSFI is a nationally-representative sample of women between the ages of 25 and 45 that includes a number of variables related to fertility.

Occupational characteristics of prestige, autonomy, supervising others, complexity, supportive workplace practices and policies, hazardous working conditions, routinization, and high interpersonal conflict from the O*NET were linked to NSFI respondents' occupations.

This provides subjective assessments of occupational characteristics.

This study demonstrates that occupational characteristics differ by race/ethnicity, and several characteristics have implications for women's fertility intentions and ideals and individual well-being as assessed by life satisfaction.

Many of the significant outcomes associated with occupational characteristics are moderated by race/ethnicity, indicating that minority women experience differential outcomes from White women.

These findings suggest that occupational characteristics have an important role in the relationship between work and well-being for women, but not all women derive the same benefits or face the same negative consequences based on their occupational characteristics.