/. biosoc. Sci. (1976) 8, 293-302
CULTURAL COMPARISONS OF MOTHERS WITH LARGE AND SMALL FAMILIES§ MARGARET W. LINN,*t LEE GUREL.J JOAN CARMICHAEL*f AND PATRICIA WEEDt * Veterans Administration Hospital and f University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida and \American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC {Received 18/A December 1975) Summary. Contraceptive knowledge and behaviour of mothers of large (five or more children) and small (under three children) families in four subcultures were compared with white Protestants. Four hundred and forty-nine mothers aged 35-45 years were studied from black, Cuban, Indian, Chicano, and white groups. With social class, knowledge of birth control, and degree of religiosity held constant, the best predictors of family size were the mother's desired family size (expressed as desired minus actual children) age at childbirth, and age at marriage. Data suggest that family size is not purely a function of birth control knowledge but related to early marriage and pregnancy and in keeping with attitudes about an ideal family size. In general, factors related to size were stronger in the white group than in the subcultures, and in a few instances certain cultures were not consistent with others in overall trends.
Introduction
Optimism about rapidly developing birth control technology is being tempered by the recognition that social and psychological attitudes affecting acceptance of the methods may limit effective population control. Blake (1965) cautioned that population growth will not be curbed by accepting the doctrine that women should have just the number of children that they want. It is pointed out that leaders fail to ask why women want so many children and suggested that while family planners talk a great deal about motivation, they pose the issue in terms of acceptance of the birth control device itself. This reduces motivation to a technological problem of simply inventing a device that will be acceptable. But, what about the woman who wants to use no contraceptive method at all ? Her attitude is often written off to ignorance or 'culture'. § Based on a paper presented at the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, New Orleans, La, 22nd October 1974. 20 293
294
M. W. Linn et al.
Along these lines, some minority leaders have charged that birth control is a plot to limit their race. In fact, a high correlation was found (Kammeyer, Yetman & McClendon, 1974) between availability of family planning services and percentage of the US black population, even when poverty, fertility, urbanism, and region were partialled out. They concluded that the decision to make family planning services available was influenced by visibility of blacks, combined with underlying and pervasive racism. Yet, Ehrlich (1970) commented, 'the most serious population growth is among affluent whites, because they are heavy polluters and consumers. Minority people tend to be the victims of pollution rather than the cause.' A backlash to family planning among some minorities may be confirmed by a survey (Buckhout, 1972) of 267 unmarried college students showing their overall estimate of desired children as 2-6. This was somewhat lower than the 2-9 (Eisner, 1970), and substantially lower than the 3-0 and 3-3 estimates from married women obtained consistently since 1936. However in Buckhout's study, blacks said they wanted 4-1 children and Chicanos 4-0. Research on married minorities shows quite different trends. Black Americans generally have higher fertility than whites (Grabill, Kiser & Whelpton, 1958). Peterson (1961), however, argued that race is not related to family size but only an index of social class; for example, whenever blacks and whites were equated in education and socio-economic status, black fertility seldom appeared much higher than that of whites and was often significantly lower (Lee & Lee, 1952). Furthermore, Rainwater (1960) has pointed out that even among lower class blacks, there is often an ambivalence about family planning and contraception. Goldscheider & Uhlenberg (1969) hypothesized that the insecurities of minority group membership operated to depress fertility below majority levels whenever (a) acculturation occurred in conjunction with their desire for it; (b) social and economic characteristics were equated; and (c) there was no pronatalist ideology or norm discouraging the use of effective contraceptives. This study was undertaken to determine motivations and behaviours associated with having a really large family as opposed to a small one, and to see if the results were replicated for several cultural groups. Method Mothers aged 35 to 45 years with no more than two children (small family (SF), N = 253) or with five or more children (large family (LF), N = 196) were randomly selected from five cultural groups. Black mothers were selected from a model cities area, Cubans from the Little Havana district, Indians from the Miccosukee and Seminole villages, migrant Chicanos from a large farming area, and white Protestants from a lower-middle to middle class section of Miami. Data collectors were female—one black, one Cuban, and the others white. Mothers were visited in their homes and were paid for their participation in the research. A 68-item questionnaire covered background variables, marital history and the mother's contraceptive knowledge and behaviour. Demographic variables included number of children, education, family weekly income and social class (Hollingshead, 1957).
Culturalfactors andfamily size
295
Questions relating to influence of the church included religion, degree of church affiliation as estimated by the mother on a four-point scale (1 = very active, 2 = active, 3 = inactive but affiliated, 4 = inactive, no affiliation), whether the mother knew what the church taught about birth control or abortion, and whether she agreed with teaching of the church. Items covering marital and child-bearing history were mother's age at marriage, current marital status, age at the birth of each child, whether she and her mate agreed about family size, ideal size, preferred years between children, miscarriages, and pregnancies with complications. Mothers named all the birth control methods they knew, without prompting from the interviewer; answers were coded by the total number, those known or not, and by degree of effectiveness. The same scoring technique was used for methods ever used, first used, most frequently used, and currently used. Other items associated with birth control practices included abortions (sought on her own), tubal ligation, and whether her mate had a vasectomy. Several derivative variables were generated from the primary data. The number of years between marriage and birth of the first child was calculated. The difference between ideal and actual family size was computed. The mean number of years between births was computed by adding together the years between each childbirth and dividing by N — 1 births. Subjects who reported disagreement with their husband about number of children were assigned a score to reflect the direction of the disagreement. Initial analyses confirmed that social class, number of birth control methods known, and degree of affiliation with the church correlated significantly with some of the dependent variables; these three variables were entered therefore as covariates, both singly and in combination in a 2 x 5 factorial design using analysis of covariance. The analysis tested for main effect of family size, main effect of culture, and interactions between the two. Since the white Protestant group served as a basis for comparison of minority responses, parallel analyses with and without the white 'core culture' were run. This made possible the determination of how the minority groups differed among themselves, as well as how, as groups, they differed from the white Protestant sample. It was expected that differences among the minorities would be less than those between the minority and the white Protestants. Results Background characteristics Of the 449 mothers interviewed, 99 were black, 78 Cuban, 85 Indian, 77 Chicano, and 110 white. Age did not differ between LF or SF mothers or across cultures. Weekly family income was comparable among the subcultures but higher for the whites (Chicanos = $124, Indians = $153, blacks = $160, Cubans = $184, whites = $357). Education followed the same patterns as for income. All whites, 91 % of the blacks and 74% of the Indians were Protestant. About 21 % of the Indians professed to have their own Indian religion. Almost all of the Cubans (90%) were Catholic, as were 58 % of the migrants.
19-4 201 2-7 0-8 20 76 2-3 2-9 15 2-5
11 2-3 1-5 1-8 0-4 3 0 11
Age at marriage Age at childbirth Ideal family size Actual minus idealf Disagree with husband (%) Want > children than mate (%)$ Ideal years spacing Av. years actual spacing§ Used BC before pregnancy (%) No. BC methods ever used Effective BC 1 Named First used Ever used Usually used No. miscarriages Had abortion (%) Mate had vasectomy (%) Had tubes tied (%) 19-2 20-6 4-8 -0-3 13 33 2-6 2-8 0 1-2
22-6 25-3 3-9 2-1 10 100 2-3 40 25 1-6 1-3 2-3 20 2-2 0-2 28 0 15
19-2 18-4 4-7 -2-7 42 14 2-3 2-4 2 20 1-1 2-8 2-2 2-8 0-5 0 2 25 1-3 2-3 20 2-5 0-4 8 0 40
LF
SF
LF
Cuban (AT =78)
1-3 1-8 1-8 1-8 0-2 0 0 21
21-2 22-3 3-2 1-4 29 31 2-5 2-4 7 10
SF
2-1 3-1 30 30 0-4 4 0 60
170 18-9 5-6 -10 32 66 2-8 2-4 0 0-3
LF
Indian (/*r=85)
11 2-3 2-2 2-4 0-3 8 0 11
21-3 23-4 2-2 1-3 31 87 20 3-7 0 0-9
SF
1-6 2-4 2-1 2-4 0-6 0 3 18
17-9 18-6 6-3 -0-9 36 42 2-5 1-9 2 09
LF
Migrant (AT =77)
10 1-7 1-3 1-6 0-3 9 18 15
22-3 25-3 2-1 0-3 17 83 2-5 3-5 64 2-2
SF
10 1-6 10 1-6 0-8 0 26 36
20-8 22-5 4-3 -1-3 20 13 2-1 2-4 43 2-4
LF
White (AT = 110)
* For the convenience of the reader, percentages were entered where items had been scored as 0 = no, 1 = yes; thus, a mean of 0-76 could read as 76% who answered yes. t Minus sign indicates mother thought fewer children were ideal. t Computed only for those who disagreed with spouse about number of children (80). § No. of years between each child divided by AT— 1 children. If Rated on four-point scale; higher scores less effective.
SF
Variable
Black (AT =99)
Cultural group
Table 1. Means or percentages* of variables for five cultural groups according to family size
Cultural factors andfamily size
297
Large and small family differences Table 1 shows LF and SF means or percentages within each of the five groups; about three-fourths of these were significantly different between large and small families (Table 2). However, some represent overlaps in measurement or simply reflect a different statement of the same variable; for example, years between marriage and the first child is a slightly different way of expressing the mother's age at Table 2. F-ratio related to analyses of covariance for total groups and for four subcultural groups comparing variables related to family size and culture Main effects Size
Culture
Variable
Total
Subculture:
Age at marriage (M) Age at childbirth (CB) Years between M and CB Ideal family size Actual minus ideal Disagree with husband Wanted > children than matef 8. Ideal years spacing 9. Av. years actual spacing} 10. Used BC before pregnancy 11. No. BC methods ever used Effective BC§ 12. Known 13. First used 14. Ever used 15. Usually used 16. No. miscarriages 17. Had abortion 18. Mate had vasectomy 19. Had tubes tied
191*** 501*** 291*** 45-3*** 94-2*** 5-2* 11-2***
14-6*** 39-4*** 16-2*** 27-3*** 67-4*** 3-9*
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
0-2
220*** 5-3* 0-3
10-3*** 8-7** 6-5* 14-9*** 6-5* 20 10
16-2***
3-6 0-2
15-9*** 3-6 00 3-6 3-6 2-3
6-7** 2-2
3-9* 1-7
13-6***
Total 5-2*** 18-6*** 4-1** 6-3*** 7-7*** 4-8*** 4-6***
Subculture 3-5* 13-5*** 1-6
51*** 81*** 3-5* 7-5***
interac*tions size and culture Total
Subculture 3-2*
31* 1-7 0-8 2-2 21 1-6
10 0-8 11 1-3 1-5
4-3**
4-4**
0-4
01
1-5
2-9* 9-2*** 3-4**
4-7**
2-4*
21 21
1-5 2-2
0-7 30* 1-7 10
51*** 41**
5-9*** 3-6** 50*** 3-5*
4-2** 2-9* 4-0** 3-5*
1-8 1-9 0-3 1-2
2-1 1-5 0-4 1-5
7-1*** 3-9** 5-8*** 2-3* 1-3
10-3*** 71*** 3-3**
1-3
3-5* 1-3
9-9*** 1-3
3-5*
* P < 0 0 5 , • * P < 0 0 1 , ***P
CULTURAL COMPARISONS OF MOTHERS WITH LARGE AND SMALL FAMILIES§ MARGARET W. LINN,*t LEE GUREL.J JOAN CARMICHAEL*f AND PATRICIA WEEDt * Veterans Administration Hospital and f University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida and \American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC {Received 18/A December 1975) Summary. Contraceptive knowledge and behaviour of mothers of large (five or more children) and small (under three children) families in four subcultures were compared with white Protestants. Four hundred and forty-nine mothers aged 35-45 years were studied from black, Cuban, Indian, Chicano, and white groups. With social class, knowledge of birth control, and degree of religiosity held constant, the best predictors of family size were the mother's desired family size (expressed as desired minus actual children) age at childbirth, and age at marriage. Data suggest that family size is not purely a function of birth control knowledge but related to early marriage and pregnancy and in keeping with attitudes about an ideal family size. In general, factors related to size were stronger in the white group than in the subcultures, and in a few instances certain cultures were not consistent with others in overall trends.
Introduction
Optimism about rapidly developing birth control technology is being tempered by the recognition that social and psychological attitudes affecting acceptance of the methods may limit effective population control. Blake (1965) cautioned that population growth will not be curbed by accepting the doctrine that women should have just the number of children that they want. It is pointed out that leaders fail to ask why women want so many children and suggested that while family planners talk a great deal about motivation, they pose the issue in terms of acceptance of the birth control device itself. This reduces motivation to a technological problem of simply inventing a device that will be acceptable. But, what about the woman who wants to use no contraceptive method at all ? Her attitude is often written off to ignorance or 'culture'. § Based on a paper presented at the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, New Orleans, La, 22nd October 1974. 20 293
294
M. W. Linn et al.
Along these lines, some minority leaders have charged that birth control is a plot to limit their race. In fact, a high correlation was found (Kammeyer, Yetman & McClendon, 1974) between availability of family planning services and percentage of the US black population, even when poverty, fertility, urbanism, and region were partialled out. They concluded that the decision to make family planning services available was influenced by visibility of blacks, combined with underlying and pervasive racism. Yet, Ehrlich (1970) commented, 'the most serious population growth is among affluent whites, because they are heavy polluters and consumers. Minority people tend to be the victims of pollution rather than the cause.' A backlash to family planning among some minorities may be confirmed by a survey (Buckhout, 1972) of 267 unmarried college students showing their overall estimate of desired children as 2-6. This was somewhat lower than the 2-9 (Eisner, 1970), and substantially lower than the 3-0 and 3-3 estimates from married women obtained consistently since 1936. However in Buckhout's study, blacks said they wanted 4-1 children and Chicanos 4-0. Research on married minorities shows quite different trends. Black Americans generally have higher fertility than whites (Grabill, Kiser & Whelpton, 1958). Peterson (1961), however, argued that race is not related to family size but only an index of social class; for example, whenever blacks and whites were equated in education and socio-economic status, black fertility seldom appeared much higher than that of whites and was often significantly lower (Lee & Lee, 1952). Furthermore, Rainwater (1960) has pointed out that even among lower class blacks, there is often an ambivalence about family planning and contraception. Goldscheider & Uhlenberg (1969) hypothesized that the insecurities of minority group membership operated to depress fertility below majority levels whenever (a) acculturation occurred in conjunction with their desire for it; (b) social and economic characteristics were equated; and (c) there was no pronatalist ideology or norm discouraging the use of effective contraceptives. This study was undertaken to determine motivations and behaviours associated with having a really large family as opposed to a small one, and to see if the results were replicated for several cultural groups. Method Mothers aged 35 to 45 years with no more than two children (small family (SF), N = 253) or with five or more children (large family (LF), N = 196) were randomly selected from five cultural groups. Black mothers were selected from a model cities area, Cubans from the Little Havana district, Indians from the Miccosukee and Seminole villages, migrant Chicanos from a large farming area, and white Protestants from a lower-middle to middle class section of Miami. Data collectors were female—one black, one Cuban, and the others white. Mothers were visited in their homes and were paid for their participation in the research. A 68-item questionnaire covered background variables, marital history and the mother's contraceptive knowledge and behaviour. Demographic variables included number of children, education, family weekly income and social class (Hollingshead, 1957).
Culturalfactors andfamily size
295
Questions relating to influence of the church included religion, degree of church affiliation as estimated by the mother on a four-point scale (1 = very active, 2 = active, 3 = inactive but affiliated, 4 = inactive, no affiliation), whether the mother knew what the church taught about birth control or abortion, and whether she agreed with teaching of the church. Items covering marital and child-bearing history were mother's age at marriage, current marital status, age at the birth of each child, whether she and her mate agreed about family size, ideal size, preferred years between children, miscarriages, and pregnancies with complications. Mothers named all the birth control methods they knew, without prompting from the interviewer; answers were coded by the total number, those known or not, and by degree of effectiveness. The same scoring technique was used for methods ever used, first used, most frequently used, and currently used. Other items associated with birth control practices included abortions (sought on her own), tubal ligation, and whether her mate had a vasectomy. Several derivative variables were generated from the primary data. The number of years between marriage and birth of the first child was calculated. The difference between ideal and actual family size was computed. The mean number of years between births was computed by adding together the years between each childbirth and dividing by N — 1 births. Subjects who reported disagreement with their husband about number of children were assigned a score to reflect the direction of the disagreement. Initial analyses confirmed that social class, number of birth control methods known, and degree of affiliation with the church correlated significantly with some of the dependent variables; these three variables were entered therefore as covariates, both singly and in combination in a 2 x 5 factorial design using analysis of covariance. The analysis tested for main effect of family size, main effect of culture, and interactions between the two. Since the white Protestant group served as a basis for comparison of minority responses, parallel analyses with and without the white 'core culture' were run. This made possible the determination of how the minority groups differed among themselves, as well as how, as groups, they differed from the white Protestant sample. It was expected that differences among the minorities would be less than those between the minority and the white Protestants. Results Background characteristics Of the 449 mothers interviewed, 99 were black, 78 Cuban, 85 Indian, 77 Chicano, and 110 white. Age did not differ between LF or SF mothers or across cultures. Weekly family income was comparable among the subcultures but higher for the whites (Chicanos = $124, Indians = $153, blacks = $160, Cubans = $184, whites = $357). Education followed the same patterns as for income. All whites, 91 % of the blacks and 74% of the Indians were Protestant. About 21 % of the Indians professed to have their own Indian religion. Almost all of the Cubans (90%) were Catholic, as were 58 % of the migrants.
19-4 201 2-7 0-8 20 76 2-3 2-9 15 2-5
11 2-3 1-5 1-8 0-4 3 0 11
Age at marriage Age at childbirth Ideal family size Actual minus idealf Disagree with husband (%) Want > children than mate (%)$ Ideal years spacing Av. years actual spacing§ Used BC before pregnancy (%) No. BC methods ever used Effective BC 1 Named First used Ever used Usually used No. miscarriages Had abortion (%) Mate had vasectomy (%) Had tubes tied (%) 19-2 20-6 4-8 -0-3 13 33 2-6 2-8 0 1-2
22-6 25-3 3-9 2-1 10 100 2-3 40 25 1-6 1-3 2-3 20 2-2 0-2 28 0 15
19-2 18-4 4-7 -2-7 42 14 2-3 2-4 2 20 1-1 2-8 2-2 2-8 0-5 0 2 25 1-3 2-3 20 2-5 0-4 8 0 40
LF
SF
LF
Cuban (AT =78)
1-3 1-8 1-8 1-8 0-2 0 0 21
21-2 22-3 3-2 1-4 29 31 2-5 2-4 7 10
SF
2-1 3-1 30 30 0-4 4 0 60
170 18-9 5-6 -10 32 66 2-8 2-4 0 0-3
LF
Indian (/*r=85)
11 2-3 2-2 2-4 0-3 8 0 11
21-3 23-4 2-2 1-3 31 87 20 3-7 0 0-9
SF
1-6 2-4 2-1 2-4 0-6 0 3 18
17-9 18-6 6-3 -0-9 36 42 2-5 1-9 2 09
LF
Migrant (AT =77)
10 1-7 1-3 1-6 0-3 9 18 15
22-3 25-3 2-1 0-3 17 83 2-5 3-5 64 2-2
SF
10 1-6 10 1-6 0-8 0 26 36
20-8 22-5 4-3 -1-3 20 13 2-1 2-4 43 2-4
LF
White (AT = 110)
* For the convenience of the reader, percentages were entered where items had been scored as 0 = no, 1 = yes; thus, a mean of 0-76 could read as 76% who answered yes. t Minus sign indicates mother thought fewer children were ideal. t Computed only for those who disagreed with spouse about number of children (80). § No. of years between each child divided by AT— 1 children. If Rated on four-point scale; higher scores less effective.
SF
Variable
Black (AT =99)
Cultural group
Table 1. Means or percentages* of variables for five cultural groups according to family size
Cultural factors andfamily size
297
Large and small family differences Table 1 shows LF and SF means or percentages within each of the five groups; about three-fourths of these were significantly different between large and small families (Table 2). However, some represent overlaps in measurement or simply reflect a different statement of the same variable; for example, years between marriage and the first child is a slightly different way of expressing the mother's age at Table 2. F-ratio related to analyses of covariance for total groups and for four subcultural groups comparing variables related to family size and culture Main effects Size
Culture
Variable
Total
Subculture:
Age at marriage (M) Age at childbirth (CB) Years between M and CB Ideal family size Actual minus ideal Disagree with husband Wanted > children than matef 8. Ideal years spacing 9. Av. years actual spacing} 10. Used BC before pregnancy 11. No. BC methods ever used Effective BC§ 12. Known 13. First used 14. Ever used 15. Usually used 16. No. miscarriages 17. Had abortion 18. Mate had vasectomy 19. Had tubes tied
191*** 501*** 291*** 45-3*** 94-2*** 5-2* 11-2***
14-6*** 39-4*** 16-2*** 27-3*** 67-4*** 3-9*
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
0-2
220*** 5-3* 0-3
10-3*** 8-7** 6-5* 14-9*** 6-5* 20 10
16-2***
3-6 0-2
15-9*** 3-6 00 3-6 3-6 2-3
6-7** 2-2
3-9* 1-7
13-6***
Total 5-2*** 18-6*** 4-1** 6-3*** 7-7*** 4-8*** 4-6***
Subculture 3-5* 13-5*** 1-6
51*** 81*** 3-5* 7-5***
interac*tions size and culture Total
Subculture 3-2*
31* 1-7 0-8 2-2 21 1-6
10 0-8 11 1-3 1-5
4-3**
4-4**
0-4
01
1-5
2-9* 9-2*** 3-4**
4-7**
2-4*
21 21
1-5 2-2
0-7 30* 1-7 10
51*** 41**
5-9*** 3-6** 50*** 3-5*
4-2** 2-9* 4-0** 3-5*
1-8 1-9 0-3 1-2
2-1 1-5 0-4 1-5
7-1*** 3-9** 5-8*** 2-3* 1-3
10-3*** 71*** 3-3**
1-3
3-5* 1-3
9-9*** 1-3
3-5*
* P < 0 0 5 , • * P < 0 0 1 , ***P
