Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T10:09:22.904Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Misreporting in rural fertility data: an analysis of husband–wife disagreement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

C. Vlassoff  and
M. Vlassoff
C. Vlassoff
Affiliation:
Department of Demography, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, University of Poona, India
M. Vlassoff
Affiliation:
Department of Demography, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, University of Poona, India
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Two independent, concurrent demographic surveys in rural India, one male, the other female, were used to examine misreporting of ever-born children among 223 couples common to both samples. Husband-wife disagreements were checked in detail and characteristics of the errors and of the misreporters themselves were analysed. ‘Forgetting’ of dead children was the main cause of mistaken reporting. Another type of error was found to be sex-related: men, but not women, confused fetal deaths with live births. Of the various correlates of male misreporting tested, only age appeared to be a determining factor. On the other hand, traditional attitudes and overall response reliability were more important than age in explaining female errors. No significant relationships between faulty reporting and socio-economic status or family size were established. Various suggestions are made for minimizing fertility misreporting in surveys of rural, illiterate populations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , October 1978 , pp. 437 - 444
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bogue, D.G. & Bogue, E.J. (1970) Techniques of Pregnancy History Analysis. University of Chicago, Chicago.Google Scholar
Brass, W. & Coale, A.J. (1968) Methods of analysis and estimation. In: The Demography of Tropical Africa, pp. 88–142. Edited by Brass, W. et al. . Princeton University Press, Princeton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brass, W. (1975) Methods for Estimating Fertility and Mortality from Limited and Defective Data. Laboratories for Population Statistics, Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Cartwright, A. & Moffett, J. (1974) A comparison of results obtained by men and women interviewers in a fertility survey. J. biosoc. Sci. 6, 315.Google Scholar
Cartwright, A. & Prince, E. (1975) The repeatability of data obtained in a fertility survey. J. biosoc. Sci. 7, 207.Google Scholar
Freedman, R. & Takeshita, J.Y. (1969) Family Planning in Taiwan. Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Poffenberger, T. & Poffenberger, S.B. (1973) The social psychology of fertility behaviour in a village in India. In: Psychological Perspectives on Population, pp. 135–162. Edited by Fawcett, J. T.. Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Potter, J.E. (1977) Methods of detecting errors in WFS data: an application to the Fiji Fertility Study, Part 2. In: International Population Conference, Mexico 1977, Vol. 1, pp. 101–120. IUSSP, Liege.Google Scholar
Shryock, H.S., Siegel, J.S. et al. . (1973) The Methods and Materials of Demography, Vol. 2, Government Printing Office, Washington.Google Scholar
Srivastava, M.L. (1976) Utility of male and female investigators in surveys related to fertility and family planning—a pilot study. J. Family Welfare, 22, 9.Google Scholar
Van De Walle, E. (1968) Characteristics of African demographic data. In: The Demography of Tropical Africa, pp. 12–87. Edited by Brass, W. et al. . Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Vlassoff, C. (1978) The Significance of Cultural Tradition for Contraceptive Change: A Study of Rural Indian Women. Ph.D. thesis. University of Poona, Poona.Google Scholar
Wyon, J.B. & Gordon, J.E. (1971) The Khanna Study. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar