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Relationships of desire for no more children and socioeconomic and demographic factors in Sri Lankan women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

W. I. De Silva
W. I. De Silva
Affiliation:
Division of Demography and Sociology, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra
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Summary

Data from the 1982 Sri Lanka Contraceptive Prevalence Survey are used to identify women who wish to stop childbearing; they differ in socioeconomic status from their counterparts who want more children. Educated women are more likely to be motivated to cease childbearing than non-educated women; Christian or Sinhalese/Buddhist women are more willing to stop childbearing than Moor/Muslim or Tamil/Hindu women. The relationships between sex composition of existing children and women's fertility desires indicate that although moderate son preference exists it does not affect their contraceptive behaviour. Among those who want no more children, 15% are at risk of unwanted pregnancy because they do not practise contraception. Again better education and being Christian or Sinhalese/Buddhist reduced the risk of unwanted pregnancy. Women whose husbands disapproved of contraception had over four times higher risk of unwanted pregnancy than women whose husbands approved.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , April 1992 , pp. 185 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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