Childspacing practices among Thai women

Abstract

This thesis is an attempt to study the fertility behaviour in terms of childspacing practices among rural and urban Thai women. Birth intervals in relation to educational level, contraceptive use, current place of residence and age at the time of the survey are examined by life table techniques. Data used are a subset of the National Survey of Fertility, Mortality and Family Planning in Thailand, 1979. The analysis showed that rural women are more likely to have a subsequent birth after the third birth than are urban women. The length of the second and third birth intervals of rural women are longer than that of urban women. For the fourth and fifth birth intervals, rural women have shorter intervals. A smaller proportion of the younger cohort in both rural and urban areas have subsequent births; the younger women also have longer birth intervals than the older women. Education is shown to have a negative effects on childspacing even after controlling the age of women. More educated women are less likely to have a subsequent birth than less educated women. The longer birth interval of more educated women in both rural and urban areas is apparent at higher birth orders. Women who have ever used contraception have a smaller proportion with a subsequent birth after the second birth for urban women and after the third birth for rural women. After the second birth, The length of birth interval of ever users in the two areas are longer than those of never users.