Consequences for children of their birth planning status.
Of 1,327 children younger than two in 1986 whose mothers were participants in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 61% were wanted, 34% were mistimed and 5% were unwanted. Planning status is associated with the level of developmental resources the child receives at home: At ages one and older, mistimed and unwanted children score significantly lower on a scale measuring opportunity for skill development and on a scale measuring nonauthoritarian parenting style than their wanted peers; by preschool age, they also have significantly less-positive relationships with their mothers. Measures of the direct effects of planning status on development also indicate that mistimed and unwanted children are at a disadvantage: Those younger than two have higher mean scores for fearfulness than wanted infants and lower scores for positive affect; unintended preschoolers score lower on a measure of receptive vocabulary.
Baydar
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Battelle Centers for Public Health Research and Evaluation, Seattle, Wash., USA.
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001721:Birth Intervals; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002676:Child, Unwanted / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005006:Ethnicity; D005193:Family Planning Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013694:Temperament; D014481:United States