Occupational Stressors, Perceived Stress, and Women’s Fertility in Germany

Chen Luo , University of Warsaw
Anna Matysiak, University of Warsaw
Ewa Jarosz, University of Warsaw

This study examines how occupational stressors influence employed women’s likelihood of conception in Germany, focusing on the physical and psychosocial mechanisms linking work conditions to fertility behaviour. Job-related stressors have intensified across occupations in recent decades, raising concerns about their long-term effects on health and well-being (Sonnentag et al., 2023). Previous research has highlighted how stress affects fertility through infertility, treatment outcomes, and miscarriage (Dehkordi et al., 2025; Qu et al., 2017), yet these studies mostly address short-term effects in clinical or selective populations. Moreover, individuals vary in their responses to job stressors (Limm et al., 2010), leading to differences in perceived stress even among those in similar jobs, and these differences may, in turn, affect fecundity and childbearing decisions (Mínguez-Alarcón et al., 2023). However, few studies have explored how the interaction between objective job stressors and subjective stress perceptions shapes reproductive outcomes. Using the German Family Panel (pairfam) combined with occupation-level stress indicators from the 2012 Survey of the Working Population on Qualification and Working Conditions in Germany, we assess whether women in more stressful occupations are more or less likely to conceive in the following year. Logistic regression models show that women in physically demanding occupations have a lower probability of conception, whereas those in psychosocially demanding occupations are more likely to conceive. Moreover, women reporting higher self-perceived stress exhibit increased conception likelihood in psychosocially demanding jobs, while those with lower stress show similar probabilities across occupations.

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 Presented in Session 7. Fertility and Work Conditions