Ingly viewed as a matter of choice, and voluntary childlessness has become more common. Yet there are also qualitative accounts of successful career oriented women who delay childbearing until it is too late to have children and then experience distress (Hewlett, 2002). Given heterogeneity among the childless, we do not have a solid understanding of different life course pathways that lead to childlessness, and these pathways are likely to have different implications for personal well-being. Future research should consider the reasons for childlessness as well as consequences for wellbeing. Moreover, the cultural meanings of childlessness have changed over recent decades, suggesting the possibility that effects will vary across cohorts and over historical time. With a few exceptions (e.g., White McQuillan, 2006), existing research on childlessness is limited by cross-sectional designs and future research should consider how the effects of childlessness may change over time as well as across social groups and cohorts.NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptJ Marriage Fam. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 August 23.Umberson et al.PageTransition to ParenthoodA theme of the 2000s is that parenthood, per se, does not predict well-being in a systematic way. Most studies over the past decade have worked to identify specific social contexts in which parenthood fosters well-being or distress. We first consider how the transition to parenthood is associated with well-being and then consider how parenting (of minor and adult children) influences well-being across diverse social contexts. A life course perspective emphasizes the importance of major life transitions in triggering shifts in wellbeing (Elder, Johnson, Crosnoe, 2003). The transition to parenthood is a pivotal life course transition (Knoester Eggebeen, 2006), and many studies in the 2000s focused on the timing of this transition in the life course. Demographic research on childbearing and the timing of first births has long employed a life course perspective to reveal how socioeconomic antecedents and consequences of early childbearing create life course trajectories of cumulative disadvantage for parents. Early transition to parenthood, particularly during the teen years, has been associated with truncated educational and work opportunities and increased marital instability (Hofferth, Reid, Mott, 2001)–all factors that might undermine well-being in the short and long term (Booth, Rustenback, McHale, 2008). Early transition to parenthood is a contemporary concern given the recent Luteolin 7-O-��-D-glucoside web upturn in teenage pregnancy after nearly a decade of teenage pregnancy decline (Santelli, Lindberg, Diaz, Orr, 2009). A few recent studies consider the impact of early parenting transitions on mental health, with a focus on young adulthood. Booth and colleagues (2008) analyzed a longitudinal sample of young adults and found that, although socioeconomically disadvantaged adults were more likely to make early transitions to parenthood, they were not at increased risk for depression 5 years later. The authors concluded that early transitions “can be HS-173 site rational and sound” (p. 12) for certain individuals. This upbeat conclusion dovetails with Edin and Kefalas’s (2005) qualitative (in-depth interview) study on early parenthood for poor women. Although they did not focus on well-being, they concluded that poor women (age 15 to 56, average age 25) often viewed parent.Ingly viewed as a matter of choice, and voluntary childlessness has become more common. Yet there are also qualitative accounts of successful career oriented women who delay childbearing until it is too late to have children and then experience distress (Hewlett, 2002). Given heterogeneity among the childless, we do not have a solid understanding of different life course pathways that lead to childlessness, and these pathways are likely to have different implications for personal well-being. Future research should consider the reasons for childlessness as well as consequences for wellbeing. Moreover, the cultural meanings of childlessness have changed over recent decades, suggesting the possibility that effects will vary across cohorts and over historical time. With a few exceptions (e.g., White McQuillan, 2006), existing research on childlessness is limited by cross-sectional designs and future research should consider how the effects of childlessness may change over time as well as across social groups and cohorts.NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptJ Marriage Fam. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 August 23.Umberson et al.PageTransition to ParenthoodA theme of the 2000s is that parenthood, per se, does not predict well-being in a systematic way. Most studies over the past decade have worked to identify specific social contexts in which parenthood fosters well-being or distress. We first consider how the transition to parenthood is associated with well-being and then consider how parenting (of minor and adult children) influences well-being across diverse social contexts. A life course perspective emphasizes the importance of major life transitions in triggering shifts in wellbeing (Elder, Johnson, Crosnoe, 2003). The transition to parenthood is a pivotal life course transition (Knoester Eggebeen, 2006), and many studies in the 2000s focused on the timing of this transition in the life course. Demographic research on childbearing and the timing of first births has long employed a life course perspective to reveal how socioeconomic antecedents and consequences of early childbearing create life course trajectories of cumulative disadvantage for parents. Early transition to parenthood, particularly during the teen years, has been associated with truncated educational and work opportunities and increased marital instability (Hofferth, Reid, Mott, 2001)–all factors that might undermine well-being in the short and long term (Booth, Rustenback, McHale, 2008). Early transition to parenthood is a contemporary concern given the recent upturn in teenage pregnancy after nearly a decade of teenage pregnancy decline (Santelli, Lindberg, Diaz, Orr, 2009). A few recent studies consider the impact of early parenting transitions on mental health, with a focus on young adulthood. Booth and colleagues (2008) analyzed a longitudinal sample of young adults and found that, although socioeconomically disadvantaged adults were more likely to make early transitions to parenthood, they were not at increased risk for depression 5 years later. The authors concluded that early transitions “can be rational and sound” (p. 12) for certain individuals. This upbeat conclusion dovetails with Edin and Kefalas’s (2005) qualitative (in-depth interview) study on early parenthood for poor women. Although they did not focus on well-being, they concluded that poor women (age 15 to 56, average age 25) often viewed parent.