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Determinants of child-bearing intentions of low-income women: attitudes versus life circumstances

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Stephen E. Radecki  and
Linda J. Beckman
Stephen E. Radecki
Affiliation:
Memorial Family Medicine, Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, California
Linda J. Beckman
Affiliation:
California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles, USA
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Summary

Surveys of low-income women in Los Angeles County in 1985 and 1986 were used to examine the relative impact of child-bearing motivations versus life circumstances on the intention to have a(nother) child. Future child-bearing intentions are strongly related to current parity level regardless of marital status, race/ethnicity or economic status. Psychological motivating factors predict child-bearing intentions of nulliparous women, but not those of parous women. Multivariate analyses showed that motivation for parenthood and life circumstances combined predicted women's child-bearing intentions 88·6% of the time for nulliparous women, but 73·7% for parous women. These findings suggest that, in a low-income population, the onset of parenthood reduces the relationship between specific motivations for child-bearing and actual child-bearing intentions, and diminishes the ability to predict child-bearing intentions based on both attitudinal and social/structural factors.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , April 1992 , pp. 157 - 166
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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