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An analysis of factors affecting traditional family expectations and perceptions of ideal fertility

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Abstract

This study examines (1) the conditions giving rise to variation in sex-role orientation and the perceived cost of having children, and (2) the role these variables play as mechanisms linking antecedent variables to perceptions of ideal fertility. Data are drawn from a metropolitan area sampling of 401 adults. Antecedent variables of sex, employment status, age, education, exposure to metropolitan living, and religious traditionalism — though correlated with ideal fertility — have no direct effects on that variable. Rather, the effects of these variables on fertility are mediated through sex-role orientation and the perceived cost of having children.

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The authors thank the College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Oklahoma, for providing funds for this project. The data in this report were collected as part of a larger survey of the graduate training program in methods and statistics in the Department of Sociology.

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Scott, W.J., Morgan, C.S. An analysis of factors affecting traditional family expectations and perceptions of ideal fertility. Sex Roles 9, 901–914 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00289964

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