Ideal Family Size, Fertility, and Population Policy in Western Europe

1982 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Girard ◽  
Louis Roussel
Keyword(s):  
Family Size ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Population Policy ◽  
Ideal Family Size ◽  
Ideal Family

FERTILITY AND POPULATION POLICY IN TWO COUNTIES IN CHINA 1980–1991

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
NEIL H. THOMAS ◽  
MU AIPING
Keyword(s):  
Family Size ◽  
Population Policy ◽  
National Level ◽  
Reproductive Behaviour ◽  
Fertility Level ◽  
Ideal Family Size ◽  
Ideal Family ◽  
The Social ◽  
Demand For Children ◽  
Costs Of Children

A survey of women in two highly developed rural counties of China, Sichuan and Jiangsu Provinces, was carried out in late 1991, to gain information about demographic and economic change between 1980 and 1990. Three separate surveys were conducted: the first a questionnaire administered to married women aged 30–39, eliciting information about childbearing and contraception, as well as the social and economic background of the respondents; the second, focus group interviews emphasizing the motivation for childbearing. Official information about the selected villages, townships and counties was also collected.National level data in 1987 show that individual reproductive behaviour in China failed to conform to a universal, effectively implemented, population policy. They imply either a spatial range of policies, or great diversity in the demand for children, or perhaps a combination of both.Such diversity in reproductive behaviour is also found in the study area. The purpose of the analysis was to examine the diversity in reproductive behaviour and contraceptive practice, and to discover whether differentials are influenced by area, or else exist between individuals within areas. If the former, then the explanation may be found in differences in policy formulation and implementation between areas: and if the latter, to demand for children, or else differential application of policy restrictions.The main findings were that: (1) the explanation of the pattern of fertility and contraceptive use is to be found at the individual level (within locations) rather than in policy differences between administrative units; (2) the association between income and number of children is negative, as is that between income and the propensity for uniparous women to remain unsterilized. The theory that privilege may be exercised to gain concessions from birth planning cadres is therefore not supported; (3) ideal family size differentials are largely absent, showing that social (education) and economic (income, occupation) characteristics are not responsible for differences in reproductive motivations, and implying that the nature of the demand for children is very different from that in most rural areas of the Third World; (4) data on ideal family size by sex of the existing offspring indicate only a weak preference for sons.The low demand for children, and the weak son preference, may both be explained by the social acceptability of uxorilocal marriages, and of village endogamy, together with the prohibitive costs of children, and especially of sons. This partly results from the expense of education, but most mothers emphasize marriage costs.It is speculated that the circumstances responsible for the escalating costs of children in the two counties are likely to pertain in growing areas of the country, with the privatization of education and health services, the declining support of collective institutions, and the replacement of this function by kinship networks.These on-going changes imply that any policy of reproductive restriction for the purposes of population control is likely soon to meet with diminishing resistance; and it may later be rendered unnecessary in the eyes of government officials, as fulfilled reproductive intentions lead to a fertility level below replacement level.

scholarly journals PERIOD AND COHORT DYNAMICS IN FERTILITY NORMS AT THE ONSET OF THE DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION IN KENYA 1978–1998

2007 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. G. WHITE ◽  
C. HALL ◽  
B. WOLFF
Keyword(s):  
Family Size ◽  
Fertility Decline ◽  
Fertility Transition ◽  
Period Effect ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Demographic Model ◽  
Ideal Family Size ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
Ideal Family ◽  
Rapid Fall

Summary.A characteristic of African pre-transitional fertility regimes is large ideal family size. This has been used to support claims of cultural entrenchment of high fertility. Yet in Kenya fertility rates have fallen. In this paper this fall is explored in relation to trends in fertility norms and attitudes using four sequential cross-sectional surveys spanning the fertility transition in Kenya (1978, 1984, 1989 and 1998). The most rapid fall in the reported ideal family size occurred between 1984 and 1989, whilst the most rapid fall in the total fertility rate occurred 5 to 10 years later, between 1989 and 1998. Thus these data, spanning the fertility transition in Kenya, support the traditional demographic model that demand for fertility limitation drives fertility decline. These data also suggest that the decline in fertility norms over time was partly a period effect, as the reported ideal family size was seen to fall simultaneously in all age cohorts, and partly a cohort effect, as older age cohorts reporting higher ideal family sizes were replaced by younger cohorts reporting lower ideal family sizes. These data also suggest that a new fertility norm of four children may have developed by 1989 and continued until 1998. This is consistent with, and perhaps could have been used to predict, the stall in the Kenyan fertility decline after 1998.

Family planning in Lae urban area of Papua New Guinea 1981

1984 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
William K. A. Agyei
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Family Size ◽  
Contraceptive Use ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Ideal Family Size ◽  
Ideal Family ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Ideal

SummaryA summary of 298 male and 358 female respondents in the Lae urban area of Papua New Guinea in 1981 revealed a relatively high level of contraceptive awareness, but the level of contraceptive use is low. However, the overall current usages of non-traditional methods for the wives of the male and for the female respondents are 34–2% and 37% respectively. The male and the female respondents have the same views on the ideal family size—approximately three children.

Ideal family size in the Irish Republic

1980 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Wilson-Davis
Keyword(s):  
Family Size ◽  
Ideal Family Size ◽  
Ideal Family ◽  
Irish Data ◽  
Irish Republic ◽  
Western European

SummarySummary From a survey conducted in the Irish Republic, data on ideal family size are given. Irish wives have high family size preferences, the overall mean ideal family size being 4.3 children. The Irish data are compared with American and western European; they show that the ideals of wives in Ireland are significantly higher than in these other countries. The concept of ideal family size appears to possess validity in its own right, and is not solely a rationalization of actual fertility experience.

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