title: Determinants of child-bearing intentions of low-income women: attitudes versus life circumstances.
abstract: Surveys of low-income women in Los Angeles County in 1985 and 1986 were used to examine the relative impact of child-bearing motivations versus life circumstances on the intention to have a(nother) child. Future child-bearing intentions are strongly related to current parity level regardless of marital status, race/ethnicity or economic status. Psychological motivating factors predict child-bearing intentions of nulliparous women, but not those of parous women. Multivariate analyses showed that motivation for parenthood and life circumstances combined predicted women's child-bearing intentions 88.6% of the time for nulliparous women, but 73.7% for parous women. These findings suggest that, in a low-income population, the onset of parenthood reduces the relationship between specific motivations for child-bearing and actual child-bearing intentions, and diminishes the ability to predict child-bearing intentions based on both attitudinal and social/structural factors.
authors.affiliation: Memorial Family Medicine, Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, California.
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Radecki
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Beckman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002140:California; D002648:Child; D002668:Child Rearing / Q000639:trends*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D011203:Poverty; D012931:Social Environment