Factors Related to the Intention to have Additional Children in the United States: A Reanalysis of Data from the 1965 and 1970 National Fertility Studies

Abstract

Reproductive intentions of white mothers with no more than three children in 1965 and in 1970 were analyzed for their stability and change with respect to such factors as parity, age of the youngest child, wife's employment, and husband's education. Parity and age of the youngest child were found to have a much more important effect on the intent to have additional children than were such socioeconomic variables as wife's employment and husband's education. Parity and the interval since the latest birth (or the age of the youngest child) were found to have a nonlinear effect and to interact in affecting the reproductive intention. This suggests a convergence to a two-child family as the threshold size and that the length of childspacing is contingent on the parity. Change during 1965-1970 in this direction was found to be greater among mothers with husbands having college or higher educations