IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dem/demres/v26y2012i20.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From desires to behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah R. Hayford

    (Ohio State University)

  • Victor Agadjanian

    (University of California, Los Angeles)

Abstract

Background: Extensive research in both developed and developing countries has shown that preferences and intentions for future childbearing predict behavior. However, very little of this research has examined high-fertility contexts in sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, the factors that increase or decrease correspondence between fertility desires and behavior in these settings are not well understood. Objective: This article documents the degree to which the desire to stop childbearing predicts fertility behavior over the short term among married women in rural southern Mozambique, a context where fertility transition is still in the early stages. Analyses test the moderating powers of individual, household, and community characteristics. Methods: Analyses use data from a longitudinal survey of married women of reproductive age (N=1678) carried out in 2006 and 2009 in rural areas of southern Mozambique. Logistic regression models are estimated to predict childbearing between 2006 and 2009 based on desires to stop childbearing and characteristics measured in 2006. Results: As expected, the desire to stop childbearing is strongly predictive of fertility behavior. Household wealth, local adult AIDS mortality, and being married to an unsuccessful labor migrant are associated with higher correspondence between reported desire to stop childbearing and fertility behavior. Conclusions: Both factors related to the ability to carry out desires to stop childbearing and factors related to the strength and consistency of these desires moderate the association between desires and behaviors. Future research should expand measurement of fertility preferences to incorporate their strength and consistency as well as direction.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah R. Hayford & Victor Agadjanian, 2012. "From desires to behavior," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 26(20), pages 511-542.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:26:y:2012:i:20
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2012.26.20
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol26/20/26-20.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/DemRes.2012.26.20?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    2. Cooper, Diane & Harries, Jane & Myer, Landon & Orner, Phyllis & Bracken, Hillary, 2007. ""Life is still going on": Reproductive intentions among HIV-positive women and men in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 274-283, July.
    3. World Bank, 2012. "World Development Indicators 2012," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6014.
    4. Ainsworth, Martha & Beegle, Kathleen & Nyamete, Andrew, 1996. "The Impact of Women's Schooling on Fertility and Contraceptive Use: A Study of Fourteen Sub-Saharan African Countries," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 10(1), pages 85-122, January.
    5. Rebecca L. Thornton, 2008. "The Demand for, and Impact of, Learning HIV Status," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1829-1863, December.
    6. Julie DaVanzo & Christine E. Peterson & Nathan Jones, 2003. "How Well Do Desired Fertility Measures for Wives and Husbands Predict Subsequent Fertility? Evidence From Malaysia," Working Papers DRU-3013-NICHD, RAND Corporation.
    7. Julie DaVanzo & Christine E. Peterson & Nathan R. Jones, 2003. "How Well Do Desired Fertility Measures for Wives and Husbands Predict Subsequent Fertility?," Working Papers 03-16, RAND Corporation.
    8. James McCarthy & Gbolahan Oni, 1987. "Desired family size and its determinants among urban Nigerian women: A two-stage analysis," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 24(2), pages 279-290, May.
    9. Fion De Vletter, 2007. "Migration and development in Mozambique: poverty, inequality and survival," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 137-153.
    10. Ronald Freedman & Albert Hermalin & Ming-Cheng Chang, 1975. "Do statements about desired family size predict fertility? the case of Taiwan, 1967–1970," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 12(3), pages 407-416, August.
    11. James Jaccard & Andrew Davidson, 1976. "The relation of psychological, social, and economic variables to fertility-related decisions," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 13(3), pages 329-338, August.
    12. Elizabeth Thomson, 1997. "Couple childbearing desires, intentions, and births," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 34(3), pages 343-354, August.
    13. World Bank, 2011. "World Development Indicators 2011," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2315.
    14. Etienne Walle, 1992. "Fertility transition, conscious choice, and numeracy," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 29(4), pages 487-502, November.
    15. Sarah Brauner-Otto & William Axinn & Dirgha Ghimire, 2007. "The spread of health services and fertility Transition," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(4), pages 747-770, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yang, Xiaojun & Wen, Qiang & Ma, Jie & Li, Jun, 2020. "Upward mobility and the demand for children: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    2. Sara Yeatman & Jenny Trinitapoli & Sarah Garver, 2020. "The Enduring Case for Fertility Desires," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(6), pages 2047-2056, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ivy Kodzi & David Johnson & John Casterline, 2010. "Examining the predictive value of fertility preferences among Ghanaian women," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 22(30), pages 965-984.
    2. Sarah Brauner-Otto, 2013. "Attitudes About Children and Fertility Limitation Behavior," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 32(1), pages 1-24, February.
    3. Sara Yeatman & Christie Sennott & Steven Culpepper, 2013. "Young Women’s Dynamic Family Size Preferences in the Context of Transitioning Fertility," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(5), pages 1715-1737, October.
    4. Julia Behrman, 2015. "Does Schooling Affect Women’s Desired Fertility? Evidence From Malawi, Uganda, and Ethiopia," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 787-809, June.
    5. Colleen Ray & Julia McQuillan & Arthur Greil & Stacy Tiemeyer & Sela Harcey, 2018. "Stability and change in personal fertility ideals among U.S. women in heterosexual relationships," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 39(16), pages 459-486.
    6. Kerry MacQuarrie & Jeffrey Edmeades, 2015. "Whose Fertility Preferences Matter? Women, Husbands, In-laws, and Abortion in Madhya Pradesh, India," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 34(4), pages 615-639, August.
    7. Alessandro Rosina & Laura Cavalli & Maria Rita Testa, 2011. "Couples’ childbearing behaviour in Italy: which of the partners is leading it?," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 9(1), pages 157-178.
    8. Horst Feldmann, 2013. "Technological unemployment in industrial countries," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 1099-1126, November.
    9. Shankar GHIMIRE & Debasri MUKHERJEE & Eskander ALVI, 2016. "Aid-for-Trade and Export Performance of Developing Countries," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 16(1), pages 23-34.
    10. Abdullah, Muhammad & Chani, Muhammad Irfan & Ali, Amjad & Shoukat, Ayza, 2013. "Co-Integration Between Fertility and Human Development Indicators: Evidence from Pakistan," MPRA Paper 49134, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Nicoletta Balbo & Francesco C. Billari & Melinda Mills, 2013. "Fertility in Advanced Societies: A Review of Research," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 1-38, February.
    12. Dana Sarnak & Stan Becker, 2022. "Accuracy of wives' proxy reports of husbands' fertility preferences in sub-Saharan Africa," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(17), pages 503-546.
    13. Kari Grenade & Allan Wright, 2014. "Public Spending in Selected Caribbean Countries," Public Finance Review, , vol. 42(4), pages 487-510, July.
    14. Alessandro Rosina & Maria Rita Testa, 2009. "Couples’ First Child Intentions and Disagreement: An Analysis of the Italian Case [La concordance des intentions d’avoir un premier enfant dans le couple: Une analyse du cas italien]," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 25(4), pages 487-502, November.
    15. Bill Francis & Eric Ofori, 2015. "Political regimes and stock market development," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 5(1), pages 111-137, June.
    16. Rati Ram & Secil Ural, 2014. "Comparison of GDP Per Capita Data in Penn World Table and World Development Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(2), pages 639-646, April.
    17. Nora L. Álvarez-Berríos & Daniel J. Redo & T. Mitchell Aide & Matthew L. Clark & Ricardo Grau, 2013. "Land Change in the Greater Antilles between 2001 and 2010," Land, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-27, March.
    18. Prettner, Klaus & Bloom, David E. & Strulik, Holger, 2013. "Declining fertility and economic well-being: Do education and health ride to the rescue?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 70-79.
    19. Henriette Engelhardt, 2004. "Fertility Intentions and Preferences: Effects of Structural and Financial Incentives and Constraints in Austria," VID Working Papers 0402, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.
    20. Stéphane Verguet & Ramanan Laxminarayan & Dean T. Jamison, 2015. "Universal Public Finance of Tuberculosis Treatment in India: An Extended Cost‐Effectiveness Analysis," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(3), pages 318-332, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    fertility; sub-Saharan Africa; fertility transition; fertility preferences; intention-behavior correspondence; Mozambique;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:26:y:2012:i:20. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Editorial Office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.