SEQUENTAL FERTILITY DECISION MAKING AND THE

LIFE COURSE

N. KRISNAN NAMBOODIRI

INTRODUCTION

Why sequential fertility decision making has increasingly emphasized on fertility analysis?

According Misher and Westoff 1955:1. Each birth is influenced by a different set of

motivational, cultural, and family condition.2. Each birth changes family circumstances and so

affects he probability and timing of subsequent birth.

INTRODUCTION

Illustration :Sequential Fertility Decision Making and Life Course (Stage of Life)

0 5th Puberity pregnancy

Life course

divorcemarriage remarriage migration rich pregnancy

Having child decision

No having child decision

Having child decision

1. A couple’s reason for having the –th child are different from those for having other children.

2. In Any given population, there exists a normative family size floor ; fertility plans and behavior of couples below that floor are primarily determined by normative pressure; above the floor, cost benefit calculations and similar considerations are primary.

3. The effect of individual factors on fertility plans and behavior changes with parity.

Characteristic Of Fertility Plans And Behavior Linked To The Life Course

4. Reformulation of fertility plans and plan implementation failure do occur.

5. Fecundity impairment is one of the unpredictable causes of plan-implementation failures

6. Marital disruption is associated with reformulation of fertility plans and plan implementation failures

Plan Revisions and Failure

7. Unintended pregnancies occur with some frequency, and are traceable to inadequacies in the couple’s fertility decision making process or the in effectiveness of the implementation strategies

8. Fertility plans change according to the couple’s experience with infant deaths.

9. Fertility plans are adjusted if the preferred and actual sex compositions of children are incongruent.

Plan Revisions and Failure

Extrafamilial Contexts10. Sosial mobility and fertility are reciprocally related.11.Geographic mobility and fertility are reciprocally

related.

Extrafamilial and the Familial Contexts of Reproduction

Familial Context12. The fertility plans and behavior of couple who move

from one living arrangement (household composition) are influenced by the original as well as by the new arrangement

13. A woman’s for and actual participation in extra familial activities affect and are affected by her fertility plans and behavior, and the influences in both directions have long term as well as short term component; the effects in question are conditional on the various dimensions of the familial context.

Extrafamilial and the Familial Contexts of Reproduction

Familial Context14. The marital power structure is affected by and affects

the couple’s fertility plans and behavior; the effect in both directions are conditional on the various dimensions of the familial context of reproduction.

Extrafamilial and the Familial Contexts of Reproduction

15. The impact on the couple’s fertility plans and behavior of change in the reproduction context depends on life course stage at which that change occurs.

Interaction Between The Life Course and the Reproduction Context

Need longitudinal panel data from fertility surveys to know changing over the life course and study briefly such as:1. The familial and extra familial contexts of reproduction

(shifts in the marital power structure, work history, mobility and migration history and changes in economic conditions)

2. The proximate determinants of fertility (coital frequency, onset of fecundity due to various causes, and fetal wastage

3. Contraceptive and non contraceptive behavior

CONCLUTIONS