Undesired pregnancy and children's life circumstances

Abstract

The prevention of undesired pregnancies depends on the success of family planning which inturn involves availability and use of contraceptives information and attitudes. Significant variables influencing undesired pregnancy are occupation education place of residence marital status number of children birth intervals age at marriage and various social values and norms. This study carried out from 1966-74 deals with 2 aspects of undesired pregnancy: 1) as manifestations of socioeconomic problems and the impact of those problems on child development and 2) an undesired childs physical mental and social development compared with a control child. 12068 pregnant women from northern Finland filled out questionnaires dealing with family history and pregnancy desirability. The 12% that felt their pregnancy was undesired were used as a study group and a control group was chosen. After the undesired children had completed their 1st school year the study took place among 300 of them who were matched with control children. Findings included the following: 1) social decline was visible in 22% of families with undesired children and 13% of the control families 2) 10% of the study group and 4% of the control group emigrated to Sweden 3) study group families standard of living was lower than the control group 4) 40% of the study group lived in crowded quarters as opposed to 28% of the controls 5) between 1967-74 111 children were born to the study families 178 to the control families 6) 111 families in the study group and 96 of the controls had siblings move away from home 7) study families had a lower income than the control group and 8) undesired children forgot school things more frequently than control children. Results concerning physical development of the children were not explicit. Educational status did not differ between the 2 groups although the undesired children had more learning difficulties received more special teaching in reading and writing and had a slightly more negative attitude to the teacher. It is also stated that ideological factors are significant in family planning attitudes and that many times religious families will rationalize the birth of a child even after ideal family size has been reached. It is concluded that the health of the undesired children was not worse than that of the controls and that the number of children itself influences child development. A childs undesirability is thus dependent on culture and reflects the norms of the society.