Progress Report on the Study of Social and Psychological Factors Affecting Fertility

Abstract

T HE Study of Social and Psychological Factors Affecting Fertility is a natural sequel to the studies of contraception carried out during the 'thirties by Pearl, Stix and Notestein, Beebe, and others.' These earlier studies afforded rather clinching evidence that group differences in fertility are due almost entirely to group differences in the prevalence and effectiveness of contraceptive practice. They demonstrated for the first time that class differences in fertility are virtually nonexistent among groups practicing contraception similarly or not at all. Thus they not only served to invalidate the biological interpretations of class differences in fertility, but also threw a heavy burden of evidence against existing theories that the general decline of the birth rate has been due to biological deterioration. Nevertheless, they pointed to the need for further studies, for it was realized that contraception constitutes only the means of family limitation and that back of the means lies a network of cultural and personal factors inducing some people, more than others, to resort to family limitation. For several years prior to 1939 a small group of demographers met informally when occasion permitted and discussed the possibilities of organizing a cooperative study of social and psychological factors affecting fertility. From the outset there was agreement that such a study was not only a logical but also a timely next step. It was thought that the increasing popular concern over the low fertility of urban areas might eventuate soon in demands for some type of pronatal legislation in this country, and that unless such attempts were to be based on wishful thinking alone, there would be need for factual data concerning the human components of fertility. At the same time there was a natural reluctance to embark on a complex and expensive study in a new and uncertain field. However, the group believed that the subject was of sufficient importance to command the future interests of students, that a beginning had to be made sometime, and that a carefully planned first study should at least help to develop the methodology of such studies. In December, 1938 the group organized itself into a Committee on the Study of Social and Psychological Factors Affecting Fertility, which has consisted since January, 1939 of Lowell J. Reed (Chairman); Daniel Katz; E. Lowell Kelly; Frank Lorimer; Frank WV. Notestein; Frederick Osborn; S. A. Switzer; Warren S. Thompson; and the two authors of this report. Its work has been sponsored by the Milbank Memorial Fund with grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Previous articles2 have described in some detail the methodology of the Study. Here we shall simply mention briefly certain procedures that were used and the major results that are available to date. Owing to the complexity of its problem * Paper read before the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Society, Chicago, Illinois, December 27-30, 1946. 'Raymond Pearl: The Natural History of Population. New York, The Oxford University Press,