The major objective of the proposed research project is to increase our understanding of childbearing motivation as a key factor in the psychology of human reproduction. Specifically, the project aims to refine the measurement of childbearing motivation in husbands and wives, explore the developmental determinants of childbearing motivation, understand how childbearing motivation affects reproductive behavior and subsequent reproductive events, determine how childbearing motivation is affected by certain major life events, and examine the interactions of husbands' and wives' childbearing motivations.
These aims will be accomplished by interviewing 200 married couples with no children and 200 married couples with one child, and reinterviewing these couples one and two years later. The interview will include the administration of a valid, reliable questionnaire designed to measure general Positive and Negative Childbearing Motivation, as well as specific attitudes and beliefs about having children and timing their birth. Several complex, multivariate models of both the determinants and effects of childbearing motivation are proposed. These will be examined through estimation procedures that rely primarily on the maximum likelihood method of LISREL and the use of multiple regression.
| Miller, Warren B; Severy, Lawrence J; Pasta, David J (2004) A framework for modelling fertility motivation in couples. Popul Stud (Camb) 58:193-205 |
| Miller, Warren B; Feldman, Shirley S; Pasta, David J (2002) The effect of the nurturant bonding system on child security of attachment and dependency. Soc Biol 49:125-59 |
| Miller, W B; Pasta, D J; MacMurray, J et al. (1999) Dopamine receptor genes are associated with age at first sexual intercourse. J Biosoc Sci 31:43-54 |
| Miller, W B; Pasta, D J (1995) How does childbearing affect fertility motivations and desires? Soc Biol 42:185-98 |
| Miller, W B (1995) Childbearing motivation and its measurement. J Biosoc Sci 27:473-87 |
| Miller, W B (1994) Childbearing motivations, desires, and intentions: a theoretical framework. Genet Soc Gen Psychol Monogr 120:223-58 |
| Miller, W B (1992) Personality traits and developmental experiences as antecedents of childbearing motivation. Demography 29:265-85 |
