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The role of medical factors in the failure to achieve desired family size

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Christabel M. Young
Christabel M. Young
Affiliation:
Department of Demography, Australian National University, Canberra.
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Summary

Because of the widely held view that a family size of less than two children is undesirable, this paper investigates the extent to which medical conditions occur among one-child and childless families and influence ultimate family size. A partial solution to the inability to have more than one child is adoption, and the extent to which couples use adoption to attain the desired family size is discussed.

Regardless of whether or not family size is directly affected, medical factors represent a form of crisis in the lives of women concerned, and thus the incidence rates themselves are of interest. The data suggest that more than one-half of women in Australia experience such a crisis during their childbearing history.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , April 1979 , pp. 159 - 171
Copyright
Copyright © 1979, Cambridge University Press

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