Family Structure and Child-Rearing Patterns: The Effect of Family Size and Sex Composition

1963 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 891 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glen H. Elder ◽  
Charles E. Bowerman
1977 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 345
Author(s):  
E. H. ◽  
Gerald E. Markle ◽  
Robert F. Wait

2019 ◽  
Vol 81 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dakota E. McCoy ◽  
Brett M. Frye ◽  
Jennifer Kotler ◽  
Judith M. Burkart ◽  
Monika Burns ◽  
...  

1993 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. I. Chowdhury ◽  
Radheshyam Bairagi ◽  
Michael A. Koenig

SummaryThe effects of family sex composition on fertility preferences and behaviour during the period 1977–88 are examined using longitudinal data from Matlab, Bangladesh. The sex composition of living children was found to be systematically related to fertility preferences and behaviour, with a higher number of sons at each family size associated with a higher percentage of women wanting no more children, a higher percentage currently using contraception, and lower subsequent fertility. However, the highest percentage wanting no more children, using contraception and having lowest subsequent fertility was found among women who already had one daughter as well as at least one son. The effects of sex preference on fertility preferences and behaviour were measured using an index developed by Arnold (1985). The results suggest that while sex preference remained largely unchanged during the study period, its effect on contraceptive use declined and its impact on actual fertility remained modest and fairly stable.


2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chan Zhou ◽  
Wai Ying Vivien Yiu ◽  
Michael Shengtao Wu ◽  
Patricia M. Greenfield

China, having gone through rapid economic reform, supported by urbanization, educational expansion, and family size reduction over past decades, is an important part of a worldwide sociodemographic trend that can be summarized as a shift from community/ Gemeinschaft to society/ Gesellschaft. Correlated with this sociodemographic trend, our qualitative and quantitative analyses document intergenerational change in grandmothers’ perception of socializing environments and developmental pathways of Chinese children. Grandmothers from Beijing ranked (a) three generations of children at ages 4 to 6 in their families (themselves, their children, and their grandchildren) on autonomy, curiosity, self-expression, obedience, and shyness and (b) three generations of parents in their families (their parents, themselves, and their children) on child-rearing behaviors: support, praise, criticism, and control. As predicted, we found an intergenerational increase in perceived child autonomy, curiosity, and self-expression—individualistic traits adapted to Gesellschaft environments. Also as predicted, perceived child obedience and shyness, adapted to Gemeinschaft environments, declined across the generations. Related changes in reported child-rearing behaviors were also expected and found: Grandmothers judged that parental support and praise (promotion socialization), which foster individuated self-development, increased significantly, although the pattern of parental criticism and control (prevention socialization) was less clear. Promotion-based socialization strategies were found to serve as a partial mediator of intergenerational differences in individualistic child behaviors. Results suggest that the younger generations exhibit more promotion-based socialization, leading to more individualistic child traits, as they adapt to China’s more Gesellschaft ecology, comprising urbanization, formal education, and smaller family size.


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