| dc.description.abstract | This study is concerned with the investigation of the factors that
influence desired family size of currently married women at the
micro-level. The study aims at establishing how the various socioeconomic,
socio-cul tural and demographic factors affect the desired
family size. The factors investigated include the following
factors: Religion,income, parity, occupation, education, age at
first marriage and sex preference.
Multiple regression analysis is used as the major technique of
statistical analysis. The analysis of the data revealed that the
selected seven variables accounted for 50.18 per cent variance in
desired family size among the currently married women interviewed.
The corresponding F-statistic-Value of 53.68 was significant at
0.01 level. This means that the differentials in the levels of the
desired family size were apparent in the data. The t-test for the
individual coefficients (~'s) showed that among the seven selected
variables ...~•~...P•aJ;j..t~.""s'e"xcAndpreference were the .only factors
influencing the desired family size significantly.
Religion (REL) , income (INC) , occupation (CCUPT), age at first
marriage (AGEMAR) were all found to be negatively related to the
desired family size with correlation coefficients of r=-O.0029, r=-
0.0435,r=-0.1165 and r=-o.1904 respectively.parity, level of education and sex pre~ference were all found to be
positively related to desired family size. Their correlation
coefficients with desired family size were: r=0.6408, r=0.0590 and
r=0.6931 respectively.
All the hypothesized relationships were confirmed except for the
level of education variable whose positive relationship with
desired family size was not anticipated. Perhaps, this could be
because the area of study was rural and as such the influence of
education in determining desired family size does not have strong
impact. Further, socio-cultural imperatives are more operative in
the rural areas. For instance, the desire for large family is
required for domestic labour in the rural areas.
Finally, the synthetic cohort approach yielded a mean completed
family size of 3.102 children with a standard deviation of 1.077 means that in the face of the socio-economic considerations,
Meru women would tend to achieve smal•.l family size | en |
