Family intentions of women with one child : an Armidale study

Abstract

This study is concerned with the family intentions of married women in Armidale, a medium sized country town in northern New South Wales. The surveyed women had their first baby in 1976, a year when the two child family was the preference of a majority of Australian women. Previously recorded differentials in family size such as religion, age at marriage and education had narrowed to the point where they were barely measurable. The study focuses on fertility in an extra metropolitan area, the timing of the first birth after marriage as a life cycle event, the spacing of further children and the ultimate family size anticipated. Show more