Social and Psychological Factors Affecting Fertility. XXVIII. The Influence of Siblings and Friends on Fertility

• Published in: The Milbank Memorial Fund quarterly 1955-07, Vol.33 (3), p.246-267
• Main Authors: Potter, Robert G., Kantner, John F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Birth control; Correlations; Family Planning; Family Size; Fertility; Friends; Friendship; Health Services; Husbands; Old Medline; Parents; Peer Influence; Psychology; Siblings; Socioeconomic Status; Socioeconomics; Wives
• ISSN: 0026-3745
• DOI: 10.2307/3348292

Research reported previously (See SA 1114) generally failed to show a relationship between the fertility of the couples surveyed in the Indianapolis Study and the fertility of their parents. For various reasons, this finding should not be taken to indicate that childhood milieu is not an important determinant of fertility. There are, however, both theoretical and methodological reasons for expecting the fertility of the surveyed couples to show a closer relationship to the fertility of the 'primary' groups of which they are currently members than to the fertility of their parents. In the present analysis the responsiveness of couples' fertility to the fertility examples provided by their primary groups is investigated by examining the r's between couples' fertility and that of their relatives and friends. 3 hypotheses are tested: (1) there is a + relationship between couples' fertility and that of husbands' and wives' married siblings; (2) there is a substantially stronger + relationship between couples' fertility and that of their friends; & (3) in the subsample of 'efficient family planners' (those successful at birth control), these relationships will maintain their strength within SE strata. The fertility of these couples is shown from previous studies to be independent of SES; since, however, the fertility of the 'inefficient planners' varies with the effectiveness of their efforts at contraception, and this in turn is highly related to SES, the strength of the relationships in the 'inefficient planner' subsample should be reduced when SES is controlled. It was found that the relationships between couples' fertility and the fertility of husbands' or wives' siblings are very weak. A much stronger bond exists between fertility of couples and fertility of wives' friends. r = .37 in the 'efficient planner' subsample, and is maintained within SE strata. There are reasons to believe that this relationship is due primarily to the effect of family size on the formation of friendships, rather than to the influence that friends may have on couples' family size ideals. The main support for this view is the fact that controlling SES fails to lower the relationship in the 'inefficient planner' subsample to the extent expected. Future studies into primary group influence on fertility must take into account the long time that ideals about family size take to become firm, and the complex processes by which this takes place. R. Parke, Jr.