The goal of the proposed research is to describe, explain, and derive implications for fertility theory of couple fertility agreement and conflict resolution. New survey data on wives' and husbands' fertility desires will be used to extend previous research with U.S. fertility surveys from 1941 through 1982. Data from the 1987 National Survey of Families and Households will be used to (1) estimate effects of sex and gender experience on fertility values, desires and intentions; (2) estimate couple models of fertility desires and intentions, and models of agreement; and (3) estimate effects of partners' desires on fertility intentions and marital quality/stability. Changes in fertility values and desires from the 1970s to the 1980s will be investigated by comparing NSFH couples in the childbearing years (N = 3,732) with a comparable sample of couples in the 1975 U.S. Value of Children Survey. Observed changes will be analyzed in terms of changing composition of married couples and changing effects of compositional characteristics (e.g., age, parity) on fertility values and desires. Cycle IV of the National Survey of Family Growth will be used to extend estimates of unwanted fertility, defined in terms of wives' vs. husbands' vs. couples' desires. Socioeconomic differentials and trends will be estimated for (1) the proportion of births unwanted; (2) the parity of the last wanted birth; and (3) the likelihood of having an unwanted birth, using different (wife, husband, couple) definitions of unwantedness. Both NSFG-IV defined form different points of view.
| Thomson, E (1997) Couple childbearing desires, intentions, and births. Demography 34:343-54 |
| Thomson, E; McDonald, E; Bumpass, L L (1990) Fertility desires and fertility: hers, his, and theirs. Demography 27:579-88 |
