This thesis aims to study the relationship between fertility and subjective
wellbeing in a sample of Australian couples (source: HILDA 2001-2009),
followed from the year of the pregnancy with the first child. In particular, I focus
on whether the arrival of the first child modifies new parents’ fertility
expectations and the subsequent probability of experiencing a second childbirth
as a consequence of changes in couples’ subjective wellbeing after the transition
to the first parenthood. The study has been developed under a multidisciplinary
perspective (demographical, sociological and psychological), using regression
models for panel data. I find that the more difficult the adjustment process to
parenthood is, the more parents decrease their expectations of having an
additional child, and less quickly they proceed to the second child.