Date of Award:

5-1969

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Sociology and Anthropology

Department name when degree awarded

Sociology

Committee Chair(s)

Yun Kim

Committee

Yun Kim

Committee

Theral R. Black

Committee

Bruce Bylund

Abstract

Preferences of the size of family and the relationship between the size of family and a number of socio-economic and demographic variables were studied among high school senior girls in three northern Utah counties by a special survey.

The questionnaire specifically designed for the study was administered between November 1967 and February 1968 in all high schools in Cache, Box Elder and Rich counties with the exception of Logan High School in Logan and Box Elder High School in Brigham City.

Two questions were used to elicit the answers on the preference of family size; one was designed to elicit an answer with the respondent as the point of reference and the other was the "generalized other" as a reference point. Both sets of data were cross-tabulated with socio-economic and demographic variables.

Both data indicated that the mean number of children desired was 4.4 and 4.3 for the family of "generalized others" and the respondent's own family respectively.

A weak relationship was found between the ideal size of family and the education of respondent's mother and father, income, religion, residence, occupation, and the demographic variable, the respondent's own family size. The data also indicated that those with a belief in birth control prefer a smaller family than those who do not believe in the use of contraceptive devices.

Due to the sample size and the exploratory nature of the study, relationships between ideal size of family and the selected number of variables can only be suggestive.

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