Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T08:38:04.477Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

DESIRE FOR SONS AND SUBSEQUENT FERTILITY IN RURAL INDIA. A 20-YEAR LONGITUDINAL STUDY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

CAROL VLASSOFF
CAROL VLASSOFF
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

This paper compares the desired fertility of rural Indian women in 1987 with their actual fertility in 2007. Seventy-one respondents who stated definite fertility intentions and had fewer children than desired in 1987 were re-interviewed 20 years later, as part of a larger study. The results indicated that these women had fewer children than intended and stopped childbearing once they reached, or approximated, their desired number of sons. The majority had been sterilized, indicating broad acceptance of lower fertility among rural women and the success of India's family planning efforts, although the practice of sex determination seems also to have played a role. These findings echo those of an earlier longitudinal study of reproductive intentions and outcomes in the same community, demonstrating the persistence of son preference in determining reproductive behaviour, even in the context of low overall fertility. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy and programme implications of the study's findings.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , May 2012 , pp. 345 - 356
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bongaarts, J. (2002) The end of the fertility transition in the developed world. Population and Development Review 28(3), 419–433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casterline, J. B. & Sinding, S. W. (2000) Unmet need for family planning in developing countries and implications for population policy. Population and Development Review 26(4), 691–723.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Silva, W. I. (1991) Consistency between reproductive preferences and behaviour: the Sri Lanka experience. Studies in Family Planning 22(3), 188–197.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foreit, K. G. & Suh, M. H. (1980) The effect of reproductive intentions on subsequent fertility among low-parity Korean women, 1971–76. Studies in Family Planning 11(3), 91–104.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Freedman, R., Hermalin, A. I. & Chang, M. (1975) Do statements about desired family size predict fertility? The case of Taiwan, 1967–1970. Demography 12(3), 407–416.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hagewan, K. J. & Morgan, S. P. (2005) Intended and ideal family size in the United States. Population and Development Review 31(3), 507–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hermalin, A. I., Freedman, R., Sun, T. & Chang, M. (1979) Do intentions predict fertililty? The experience of Taiwan, 1967–74. Studies in Family Planning 102(3), 75–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hocking, P. (1999) Replication in village-level studies. Economic and Political Weekly 34(40), 2867–2874.Google Scholar
Indian Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) & Macro International (2008) National Family Health Survey (NFHS–3), 2005–2006, India: Maharashtra. IIPS, Mumbai.Google Scholar
Ibisomi, L., Gyimah, S., Muindi, K. & Adjei, J. (2011) Ideal versus actual: the contradiction in number of children born to Nigerian women. Journal of Biosocial Science 43, 233–245.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Islam, M. M. & Bairagi, R. (2003) Fertility intentions and subsequent behaviour in Matlab. Do fertility intentions matter? Journal of Biosocial Science 35, 615–619.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kodzi, I. A., Casterline, J. B. & Aglobitse, P. (2010) The time dynamics of individual fertility preferences among rural Ghanaian women. Studies in Family Planning 41(1), 45–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morgan, S. P. (2001) Should fertility intentions inform fertility forecasts? Proceedings of US Census Bureau Conference: The Direction of Fertility in the United States. US Census Bureau, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Morgan, S. P. & Rackin, H. (2010) The correspondence between fertility intentions and behaviour in the United States. Population and Development Review 36(1), 91–118.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nair, N. K. & Chow, L. P. (1980) Fertility intentions and behavior: some findings from Taiwan. Studies in Family Planning 11(7/8), 255–263.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Quesnel-Vallée, A. & Morgan, S. P. (2003) Missing the target? Correspondence of fertility intentions and behaviour in the U.S. Population Research and Policy Review 22, 497–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, T. K., Sinha, R. K., Koenig, M., Mohanty, S. K. & Patel, S. K. (2008) Consistency and predictive ability of fertility preference indicators: longitudinal evidence from rural India. International Family Planning Perspectives 34(3), 138–145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vlassoff, C. (1990) Fertility intentions and subsequent behavior: a longitudinal study in rural India. Studies in Family Planning 21(4), 216–225.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Westoff, C. F. & Bankole, A. (1995) Unmet need: 1990–1994. DHS Comparative Studies, No. 16, Macro International, Claverton, MD, USA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar