The differential evaluation of "large" and "small" families in rural Colombia: implications for family planning.

Abstract

A survey was conducted among 91 recently delivered and currently pregnant women in rural Colombia during the summer of 1970. The women were asked to indicate the number of children they felt constituted a large family and a small family too few and too many children. Normative judgments are correlated with various demographic characteristics of the respondents. All data are tabulated. Smaller norms are indicated by women of lower parity younger women those from lower socioeconomic groups those coming from larger families of orientation and those holding modern values. Health-related factors were unimportant in reasons for and against having either large or small families. Family-related factors were positively associated with large family preferences. Welfare of children and economic factors were positively related to small family preferences. The number of respondents who considered large families good was equal to the number who did not do so. 3/4 of the women interviewed evaluated small families positively. In a normative sense these women preferred family sizes close to their definition of small families. However their definition of small families is actually a moderate number of children from the demographic point of view. Family planning workers must emphasize the value of a specific size family rather than merely stressing small families. Findings from this study are similar to findings from a larger sampling of rural Colombian women.