PARENTING I N T E N T I O N S : AN EXAMINATION OF S O C I A L I Z A T I O N , S I T U A T I O N AND I D E N T I T Y FACTORS A S S O C I A T E D WITH THE PARENTING INTENTIONS OF U N I V E R S I T Y WOMEN By KIM SIOBHAN BURTON B . A . , T he U n i v e r s i t y o f B r i t i s h C o l u m b i a , 1981 A T H E S I S SUBMITTED TO THE F A C U L T Y OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN P A R T I A L F U L F I L L M E N T OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS i n THE F A C U L T Y OF GRADUATE STUDIES ( D e p a r t m e n t o f C o u n s e l l i n g P s y c h o l o g y ) We a c c e p t t h i s t h e s i s as c o n f o r m i n g t o t h e r e q u i r e d s t a n d a r d THE U N I V E R S I T Y OF B R I T I S H COLUMBIA MARCH, 19 91 c o p y r i g h t K i m S i o b h a n B u r t o n , 1991 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada DE-6 (2/88) Abstract The purpose of the study was to determine s o c i a l i z a t i o n , s i t u a t i o n a l , and ide n t i t y factors which distinguish u n i v e r s i t y women based on the i r parenting intentions. The s p e c i f i c factors examined were: b i r t h order, size of family of o r i g i n , ethnicity, knowing a volu n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e woman, r e l i g i o n and r e l i g i o s i t y , educational and occupational aspirations, self-esteem, and gender-role i d e n t i t y . Three groups of 34 women, ages 18 to 26, were randomly selected from 381 respondents to surveys sent to 1,000 women in 2 University of B r i t i s h Columbia residences. Respondents were assigned to 1 of the 3 groups based on t h e i r parenting intentions. The " c h i l d f r e e " group consisted of women who d e f i n i t e l y intended to never have children (N = 10), and women who probably intended to never have children (N = 24). The other two groups consisted of women who were probably intending to have childre n ("probably yes"), and d e f i n i t e l y intending to have childre n ("definitely yes"). The surveys consisted of a questionnaire to determine demographic information as well as the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory, and the Bern Sex Role Inventory to determine gender-role i d e n t i t y . Protected F tests and chi-square analyses were conducted on the data. iii At the p < .05 le v e l of significance no association was found between respondent's parenting intentions and whether they knew a v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e woman, thei r b i r t h order, or t h e i r e t h n i c i t y . A s t a t i s t i c a l l y s i g n i f i c a n t difference was not found between the three parenting intentions groups in family s i 2 e , educational aspirations, status of occupational aspirations, or self-esteem. A s t a t i s t i c a l l y s i g n i f i c a n t association was found between parenting intentions and whether an occupation was male or female dominated: " c h i l d f r e e " women more frequently aspired to a male dominated occupation, "probably yes" women aspired to male and female occupations at expected frequencies, and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women more often aspired to female dominated occupations. An association was found to exist between gender-role i d e n t i t y and parenting intentions at p < .01. "Childfree" women more frequently had masculine gender-role i d e n t i t i e s than " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women, who more often had feminine and androgynous gender-role i d e n t i t i e s . An association was found between r e l i g i o n and parenting intentions at p < .05: "c h i l d f r e e " women were less l i k e l y to be a f f i l i a t e d with a r e l i g i o n than "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women. A s t a t i s t i c a l l y s i g n i f i c a n t difference was found between the three parenting intentions groups at p < .05 on r e l i g i o s i t y . The "childfree" group was found to have lower r e l i g i o s i t y than both the "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" groups. The research findings appear to indicate that university women who intend to remain iv c h i l d f r e e are i n some ways less t r a d i t i o n a l than women who intend to have ch i l d r e n . ACKNOWLEDGMENT S Marlie Burton, for i n s t i l l i n g i n me a deep valuation of education, and with whose love and support t h i s project was possible. Judith Daniluk, for her i n s p i r a t i o n and guidance. Wendy Johnston, for lending a helping hand and a l i s t e n i n g ear. Marg Rae, for her encouragement and understanding. J i l l Bennett Seldon, for costume design and p r a c t i c a l advice. Mary Risebrough, for permitting me access to the UBC student residences, and for her intere s t in my project. O l i v i a Flynn-Gomez, for her generous assistance with the software. Murray Logan, for a s s i s t i n g with the grammar and punctuation. The residence students of Gage and Place Vanier, for t h e i r interest and p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n the study. Shelley Moore, for her invaluable assistance with the s t a t i s t i c a l analyses. Beth Haverkamp, for advice and information regarding s t a t i s t i c s . Warren Weir, f o r helping with my research design. Emma and Joe Klancnik, f o r t h e i r encouragement and love from afar. V I TABLE OF- CONTENTS 1 Statement of the Problem 1 Purpose of the Research 13 CHAPTER TWO 15 Review of the Literature 15 S o c i a l i z a t i o n Factors 16 Religion 18 E t h n i c i t y 22 Family of Origin 25 Sit u a t i o n a l Factors 30 Identity Structures 44 Gender-role i d e n t i t y 45 Self-esteem 51 Hypotheses 61 Problem Statement 61 CHAPTER THREE 67 Methodology 67 Subjects 67 Large sample c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s 68 Sub sample c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s 71 Instrumentation 75 The Personal Data Sheet 75 TSEI2 76 Bern Sex Role Inventory 80 Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale 86 ATTRACT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS LI ST OF TAJM.ES CHAPTER OMF. V l l Procedures . 90 S t a t i s t i c a l analysis 91 CHAPTER FOUR 94 Results 94 Conclusion 115 CHAPTER FIVE 117 Discussion 117 Restatement of the Purpose 117 Summary and Discussion of Results 119 So c i a l i z a t i o n factors 120 Situational factors 125 Identity factors 130 Implications For Counselling 136 Limitations of the Study 141 Implications for Further Research 143 APPENDIX A LARGE AND SMALL SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS 154 APPENDIX B PERSONAL DATA SHEET 155 APPENDIX C OCCUPATIONAL ASPIRATIONS TSEI2 SCORES, MALE OR FEMALE DOMINATED AND FREQUENCY COUNTS FOR PARENTING INTENTIONS GROUPS 158 APPENDIX D ROSENBERG SELF-ESTEEM INVENTORY 159 APPENDIX E INTRODUCTION LETTER 160 APPENDIX F CONSENT FORM 161 APPENDIX G REMINDER NOTICE 162 APPENDIX H MANOVA AND UNIVARIATE F TESTS COMPARING EQUAL N RANDOM SAMPLE WITH ENTIRE SAMPLE 163 APPENDIX I VARIABLE MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS ...164 i x LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Crosstabulation of Parenting Intentions by Marriage..96 Table 2 Crosstabulation of Parenting Intentions by Relationship Status 98 Table 3 Manova of Parenting Intentions Groups on a l l Continuous Variables (Education, Occupation, R e l i g i o s i t y , S i b l i n g s , and Self Esteem) 99 Table 4 Protected Univariate F-tests of Parenting Intentions With A l l Continuous Variables 101 Table 5 Crosstabulation of Parenting Intentions by B i r t h Order 104 Table 6 Crosstabulation of Parenting Intentions by Religious Category 106 Table 7 Crosstabulation of Parenting Intentions by Ethnic/Cultural Background 107 Table 8 Crosstabulation of Parenting Intentions by Gender Dominance of Occupational Aspirations 109 X Table 9 Crosstabulation of Parenting Intentions by Gender-role i d e n t i t y I l l Table 10 Crosstabulation of Parenting Intentions by Knowing a V o l u n t a r i l y Childfree Woman 114 1 CHAPTER ONE Statement of the Problem F e r t i l i t y decision-making has become a central concern in the l i v e s of contemporary women. Advances in contracep-ti v e technology have offered women greater control over the i r reproductive decision-making (Potts, 1980; Whelan, 1980). Greater acceptance of alternative l i f e s t y l e s and changes i n s o c i a l attitudes have encouraged many women to aspire to higher educational and occupational levels (Daniluk, 1982). Young women today often have the benefit of good t r a i n i n g and education, and an expanding range of professional opportunities (Wilk, 1986). The women's move-ment has generated a freedom which allows and encourages many women to s t r i v e f or in d i v i d u a l autonomy and achievement (Burgwyn, 1981). Contemplation and elec t i o n of l i f e s tyle alternatives have become a r e a l i t y of our time (Movius, 1976) . Many women today have come to think of motherhood as an option; l i k e so many of the rap i d l y changing s o c i a l and sexual mores of th i s era, motherhood, once v i r t u a l l y a man-date, has become a matter of choice (Faux, 1984). Women today have experienced the s o c i a l , personal, and economic advantages of the c h i l d f r e e l i f e s t y l e , and yet are strongly influenced by t r a d i t i o n a l s o c i a l i z a t i o n experiences which place considerable emphasis upon the joys and f u l f i l l m e n t s of the motherhood r o l e (Daniluk, 1982) . Young women are s t i l l being s o c i a l i z e d to pursue the maternal 2 role, but they are also encouraged to develop instrumental t r a i t s that f a c i l i t a t e pursuit of non-traditional goals (Greenglass & Borovilos, 1985) . There i s a need for an understanding of the impact th i s juxtaposition of t r a d i t i o n a l s o c i a l norms with technological and s o c i a l change i s having on the f e r t i l i t y decisions of young women today. Most cultures have a b e l i e f in pronatalism embedded within t h e i r moral and economic structures (Burgwyn, 1981; Veevers, 1980) . Parenthood tends to be prescribed as a moral imperative for people to be s o c i a l l y acceptable. Pronatalism i s a philosophic view that parenthood i s the only normal outcome of adulthood: the ultimate affirmation of l i f e i t s e l f (Burgwyn, 1981; Veevers, 1980). Pronatalist philosophies stress the advantages of having children while ignoring or minimizing the attendant disadvantages (Veevers, 1980). H i s t o r i c a l l y , women have made th e i r reproductive choices within the context of the c u l t u r a l mandate of prona-talism (Faux, 1984). In western culture, the r i g i d separation of work and family was a by-product of the i n d u s t r i a l revolution which made i t cost e f f e c t i v e to separate domestic and commercial enterprises (Wilk, 1986) . The dichotomy between "productive labor" and "reproductive labor", the so ca l l e d s p l i t between instrumental and expressive functions, was not necessarily based on inherent psychological antagonisms, but rather on malleable s o c i a l arrangements (Gerson, 1985). Women began 3 to be ideal i z e d and bound to the home by what was seen as the i r nurturant, supportive, and passive nature (Wilk, 1986). Educated and s o c i a l i z e d within t h i s model, many women inte r n a l i z e d t h i s sex-stereotyped role as natural and inevitable (Wilk, 1986). During the depression decade of the 1930s spinsterhood and delayed marriage were common, and l i f e t i m e childlessness rose to close to 2 0 percent (Burgwyn, 1981). B i r t h levels remained low during World War II, but after the war an atmo-sphere of economic confidence, patriotism, and t r a d i t i o n a l -ism created an extr a o r d i n a r i l y family-centred, p r o n a t a l i s t swing (Burgwyn, 1981). The 1950s was a record era for early marriages, high b i r t h rates, and the lowest recorded i n c i -dence of childlessness (Burgwyn, 1981). Women devoted them-selves to th e i r homes and children i n a way that no preced-ing generation of women had done, and motherhood became a f u l l time occupation (Faux, 1984) . This generation of women, dedicated to the role of wife and mother, was the primary female r o l e model for the subsequent generation of younger women (Whelan, 1980). In the late 1960s and early 1970s, economic and s o c i a l changes began to occur which had a powerful impact on the b e l i e f s , values, and goals of those who were growing up dur-ing t h i s time of t r a n s i t i o n (Daniluk 1982; Veevers, 1980; Whelan, 1 9 8 0 ) . The economy was not as strong as that of the 1 9 5 0 s , and ideals gave way to a new r e a l i t y which included the burgeoning cost of r a i s i n g children (Burgwyn, 1981). 4 High divorce s t a t i s t i c s and overpopulation were a sobering part of t h i s new r e a l i t y (Burgwyn, 1981; Eh r l i c h , 1968) . A greater number of women entered the work, force, both from choice and necessity (Burgwyn, 1981). Women began as p i r i n g to higher educational and occupational l e v e l s . The women's movement, a fundamental tenet of which has been the exercise of autonomy, promoted a desire i n women for greater indepen-dence and s e l f - s u f f i c i e n c y (Burgwyn, 1981). The widespread use of the b i r t h control p i l l i n combination with the i n t e r -est in women's ri g h t s and equality created an opportunity for women to become f u l l y aware that they could choose whether or not they wanted to be mothers, and then to act on that choice (Faux, 1984). With these h i s t o r i c a l changes came a concurrent increase i n the incidence of voluntary childlessness from 1 percent i n 1955 to 11 percent i n 1980 (Wilk, 1986). Women today have options they did not have twenty years ago but, for many women, with so many choices comes ambivalence towards a maternal r o l e . The decision of whether or not to have children i s a predominant issue i n the l i v e s of many women of childbearing age today (Faux, 1984). These women are struggling with d i f f i c u l t , often painful choices when faced with the demands and rewards of the profuse number of roles available. Women are being faced with c o n f l i c t i n g expectations that often require them to choose among a number of desired goals and options (Gerson, 1985). Inherent i n l i f e i s the r e a l i t y that any 5 l i f e choice requires relinquishing another, but the new so c i a l message for women appears to ignore t h i s r e a l i t y . The new female i d e a l i z e d s e l f i s often unrealizable, creating a gap between what one should be and what one i s (Yalom, 1990). I t i s p a r t i c u l a r l y d i f f i c u l t for women to bui l d strong bases in both the domestic and public spheres, and decisions i n one sphere often l i m i t the range of options in another (Gerson, 1985). Trade-offs are b u i l t i n whether a woman opts for work, motherhood, or a combination of both roles (Gerson, 1985). As women look for models against which to measure t h e i r plans f o r work, relationships, and children, they f i n d there are few s o c i a l precedents for t h e i r experience. Many women report f e e l i n g cut off from any generational continuity, from any consensually validated s o c i a l time clock (Wilk, 1986). The experience of t h e i r parents does not always provide an acceptable guide and, rej e c t i n g that prototype, many women fi n d themselves burdened with the unknown consequences of new decisions re-garding r e l a t i o n s h i p s , personal ambitions, and chi l d r e a r i n g . For young, college educated women today, parenthood de-si r e s may c o n f l i c t with career aspirations as they experi-ence a sense of accomplishment and upward movement towards a career goal (Gerson, 1985) . Female college undergraduates are exposed to feminist attitudes and have a broad array of career options open to them (Gerson, 1980). In 1980, while 11 percent of 18 to 24 year old American women reportedly expected to have no children, i t i s estimated that 17 6 percent of college educated women i n that age group expected to have no children (Gerson, Alpert & Richardson, 1984) . Because they are a segment of the population l i k e l y to be confronted with the issues surrounding contemporary parenthood planning, young female university students w i l l be the focus of t h i s study. L i t t l e work has been done on the independent parenthood desires and intentions of young single college women, some of whom may choose to marry only i f they want to have children (Gerson, 1986) . The present researcher w i l l undertake an exploration of the normative, s i t u a t i o n a l and personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s associated with p a r t i c u l a r parenting intentions of young university women. The purpose of the research i s to gain an understanding of what factors are related to the motivation of young un i v e r s i t y educated women today to become parents or not. A l i m i t a t i o n of the research i s that voluntary childlessness i s r e l a t i v e l y infrequent i n the population, r e s t r i c t i n g the number of subjects available for study. According to Veevers (1974) three quarters of a l l peo-ple who choose childlessness do so through a series of post-ponements. For the remainder of ch i l d f r e e i n d i v i d u a l s , the parenting choice process begins much e a r l i e r , sometimes even in early adolescence (Burgwyn, 1981; Veevers, 1974). Re-search suggests that there i s a predisposition to c h i l d l e s s -ness among some young, unmarried people (Cooper, Cumber & Hartner 1978; Gerson, 1980; Greenglass & Borovilos, 1985; Thoen, 1977) . These people, primarily women, are referred 7 to in the l i t e r a t u r e as "early a r t i c u l a t o r s " because they not only f e e l but also c l e a r l y express t h e i r c h i l d f r e e pref-erence (Houseknecht, 1979, Veevers, 1974). The f e r t i l i t y choices of early a r t i c u l a t o r s are perhaps more c l e a r l y linked to factors relevant to the ind i v i d u a l than are those of "postponers", who may have had t h e i r decision influenced by external l i f e events. According to interviews by Veevers (1980), early a r t i c u l a t o r s f e e l that not wanting children i s an immutable c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of themselves; they see themselves as non-parents from an early age and they make the i r decision to forgo parenthood independently of the at-titudes of t h e i r spouses. Studies which focus on reproduc-ti v e decisions a f t e r the fact may be influenced by re t r o -spective perceptions and a woman's current l i f e s i t u a t i o n (Veevers, 1980). The sample for the present study i s young, unmarried women who have expressed t h e i r intentions to remain c h i l d f r e e or to become parents. By comparing young women based on t h e i r a p r i o r i reproductive intentions i t w i l l be possible to discover distinguishing c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s which are c l o s e l y linked with o r i g i n a l attributes which may l i e at the root of ind i v i d u a l reproductive preferences. F e r t i l i t y decision-making i s a dynamic, multistage pro-cess and a var i e t y of decision related variables e x i s t along a continuum from desires and intentions to decisions, and f i n a l l y behaviors (Beckman, 1982). Parenthood desires and intentions indicate i n d i v i d u a l l e v e l a t t i t u d i n a l variables, while decisions and behaviors tend to indicate a couple 8 based process (Beckman, 1982). People's attitudes and intentions toward parenthood may be separate from t h e i r actual behavior, but t h e i r intentions seem to have an ef f e c t on t h e i r behavior; p a r i t y intentions appear to be predictive of outcome (Crawford & Boyer, 1985; Gormly, Gormly & Weiss, 1987). According to Hendershot and Placek (1981) the average number of expected births predicts the average number of li f e t i m e b i r t h s with an accuracy ranging from 90 to 100 percent. A l i m i t a t i o n of the present study i s that young women have not experienced l i v i n g with t h e i r decision and therefore i t i s impossible to predict whether t h e i r parenting preferences w i l l lead them to make reproductive choices which they w i l l experience as s a t i s f y i n g . Today the p o s s i b i l i t i e s for women are more diverse than at any time i n the past and women are more able to shape t h e i r l i v e s as in d i v i d u a l s . Appropriate choices can create a l i f e s t y l e t a i l o r e d to in d i v i d u a l needs and talents, o f f e r -ing more opportunities f o r well-being (Baruch, Barnett, & Rivers, 1983). Each woman must decide what i s possible and what i s best for her and not accept u n c r i t i c a l l y the man-dates of society or any c o l l e c t i v e voice (Yalom, 1990). The more a woman chooses the roles and a c t i v i t i e s that s u i t her individual values, needs and desires, the more she may i n -crease her l i f e s a t i s f a c t i o n (Baruch et a l . , 1983). Women need to make informed decisions and they need to know about other women who have made simi l a r choices (Baruch et a l . , 1983). Parenthood i s a highly demanding and rewarding r o l e 9 and women today need to make informed parenting decisions. Part of t h i s decision-making process should be an awareness of the underlying factors which distinguish women with d i f -fering parenting intentions. Knowing the normative, s i t u a -t i o n a l , and i d e n t i t y c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s which are associated with reproductive preferences may provide a star t i n g point for women exploring which roles are most suited to th e i r i n -dividual p r e d i l e c t i o n s . Because the study of parenting intentions i s a r e l a t i v e l y new area of s o c i a l enquiry, the research i s li m i t e d to being exploratory in nature. Social s c i e n t i s t s have become interested in uncovering the antecedent conditions or "causes" which account for and allow the pre d i c t i o n of variatio n s i n childbearing inten-tions among North American women (Gerson, 1980; Stolka & Barnett, 1969; Veevers, 1980) . The motivations involved i n f e r t i l i t y intentions and decisions are complex and obscure and in many cases becoming a parent may not be a conscious decision at a l l , but rather a consequence of circumstances (Veevers, 1974). To the extent that parenthood i s del i b e r -ately planned, a m u l t i p l i c i t y of motives at d i f f e r e n t l e v e l s of awareness may be involved (Veevers, 1974). Parenthood preferences may be r a t i o n a l and/or emotional, and the com-plex interplay between these factors often forms the basis for the choices which an in d i v i d u a l makes (Janis & Mann, 1977). Very l i t t l e i s known about the s p e c i f i c elements of the childbearing decision-making process; no framework ex-i s t s to guide people dealing with t h i s dilemma (Wilk, 1986). 10 Knowing which underlying c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s are relevant to parenting preferences can help focus and guide reproductive decision-making. F e r t i l i t y decision-making appears to be influenced by demographic, developmental, b i o l o g i c a l , psychological, and socio-psychological factors which may serve to increase or decrease the d e s i r a b i l i t y of s p e c i f i c options, thus motivating individuals to exercise t h e i r freedom to choose in a d i r e c t i o n which they believe w i l l warrant the greatest personal gains (Beckman, 1977; Townes, Beach, Campbell, & Martin, 1977). Individuals seem to make parenting choices based on a complex interplay of t h e i r s o c i a l i z a t i o n experiences and a balancing of the personal costs and benefits of t h e i r alternatives (Beckman,1982). T r a d i t i o n a l l y , normative influences had an enormous impact on a woman's parenting choices; i t was natural and expected for "wife" and "mother" to be a woman's primary r o l e s . Today, with increasing options for women, s o c i a l exchange and personal preferences assume a place i n parenting decisions (Beckman, 1982). There i s a need to further develop an understanding of the factors that are most relevant to parenthood intentions. To make informed f e r t i l i t y choices, women need to be aware of the impact s o c i a l i z a t i o n experiences and c u l t u r a l norms may be having on t h e i r intentions. Some research has indicated that s o c i a l i z a t i o n experiences i n an individual's family of o r i g i n , including b i r t h order and family size, are 11 associated with subsequent reproductive choices: people from small f a m i l i e s and people who are f i r s t born are more often c h i l d f r e e than others (Hendershot,1969; Ory, 1978; Veevers, 1980). Religion has been found to be a factor d i s t i n g u i s h -ing people based on t h e i r parenting intentions, v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e people being less r e l i g i o u s than people who have children (Ory, 1978; Ramu, 1986; Toomey, 1977; Veevers, 1980) . There i s a need for individuals making reproductive de-cisio n s to understand how s p e c i f i c s i t u a t i o n a l and i d e n t i t y factors may a f f e c t the d e s i r a b i l i t y of the options they are exploring. There i s some evidence in the research l i t e r a -ture to suggest that women who are vo l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e tend to have higher educational attainments than t h e i r counterparts (Bram, 1984; Ory, 1978; Veevers, 1980). S i m i l a r l y , c h i l d f r e e women have been found i n some studies to have higher occupational attainments (Bram, 1984; Toomey, 1977; Veevers, 1980). Some id e n t i t y factors have emerged out of the research as distinguishing people based on t h e i r parenting intentions, including self-esteem and gender-role i d e n t i t y . C h i l d f r e e women have been found to frequently have masculine or androgynous gender-role i d e n t i t i e s and to less frequently have feminine gender-role i d e n t i t i e s than women who prefer the parental role (Cohen, 1984; Gerson, 1980 Teicholz, 1977) . There i s some evidence in the research that c h i l d f r e e women have higher self-esteem than women who desire children (Burman & de Anda, 1986; Gerson, 12 1986) . The purpose of thi s study i s to enhance knowledge about which normative, s i t u a t i o n a l and id e n t i t y factors are associated with women's parenting intentions. Understanding motherhood motivation may be f a c i l i t a t i v e in the conceptualization of female sex-role issues and the grasping of new patterns in family formation. Young women today face a unique challenge i n choosing a l i f e s t y l e congruent with t h e i r b e l i e f s , values, i n t e r e s t s , and goals, and which w i l l bring them personal s a t i s f a c t i o n and f u l f i l l m e n t (Bombardieri, 1981; Daniluk, 1982; Veevers, 1980; Whelan; 1980) . Decisions have to be made and issues dealt with that r a r e l y had to be grappled with before. Changes and developments in values and attitudes i n the l a s t several decades have allowed variant l i f e s t y l e s to become more acceptable (Barnett & MacDonald, 1986). Today's women have been raised with t r a d i t i o n a l values and sex-role stereotypes and yet have also been exposed to emerging c u l -t u r a l values and l i f e s t y l e s which may c o n f l i c t with t r a d i -t i o n a l orientations (Daniluk, 1982) . Informed parenting choices involve careful consideration of a woman's values, a b i l i t i e s , i n t e r e s t s , and needs and may require the a s s i s -tance of others i n the form of advice, information, and sup-port (Cammaert and Larson, 1979). Research i s needed on the factors associated with parenthood desires and intentions of young women today so that people in the helping professions may be able to provide informed support. 13 Young women are faced with choosing among a confusing array of options. Making informed reproductive choices includes understanding the ch a r a c t e r i s t i c s of women who express preferences for s p e c i f i c options. In the present study the researcher w i l l attempt to i d e n t i f y some s p e c i f i c s o c i a l i z a t i o n experiences, educational and occupational plans, and i d e n t i t y factors which are related to differences in reproductive intentions and desires of single, female university students. Enhancing the body of knowledge about the factors associated with parenting intentions can contribute to an understanding of the parenthood decision-making process. The s p e c i f i c factors under examination w i l l include r e l i g i o n , ethnic background, family of o r i g i n (birth order and family s i z e ) , educational and occupational aspirations, knowing a vo l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e woman, gender-ro l e i d e n t i t y , and self-esteem; factors which reportedly d i s t i n g u i s h between women with d i f f e r i n g parenting intentions. Purpose of the Research The purpose of the research i s to gain an understanding of what factors are related to the motivation of young university educated women today to become parents or not. L i t t l e work has been done on the independent parenthood desires and intentions of young single college women, some of whose parenthood desires and intentions may c o n f l i c t with t h e i r career aspirations as they experience a sense of 14 accomplishment and upward movement towards a career goal (Gerson, 1985) . The purpose of the present study i s to enhance the body of knowledge regarding the underlying factors associated with the parenting intentions of young women today. Knowledge about which normative, s i t u a t i o n a l and id e n t i t y factors are associated with women's parenting intentions may be useful in a s s i s t i n g individuals who are experiencing d i f f i c u l t y with reproductive decision-making (Daniluk, 1982) . The present research w i l l serve the purpose of providing information with which to begin constructing a framework for parenthood decision-making by providing information about what kinds of factors d i s t i n g u i s h women based on t h e i r parenting intentions. Understanding motherhood motivation may be f a c i l i t a t i v e i n the conceptualization of female sex-role issues and the grasping of new patterns i n family formation. This understanding can aid i n the planning of e f f e c t i v e interventions for counselling women who are making f e r t i l i t y decisions (Gerson, 1980). The goal of the present study i s to search for what d i f f e r e n t i a t e s between individual's reproductive preferences by examining the broader s o c i a l , s i t u a t i o n a l , and intrapsychic contexts out of which parenthood intentions emerge i n order to provide information for women considering whether or not they want to be mothers. 15 CHAPTER TWO Review of the Literature Parenthood decision-making, and the major components and factors involved i n t h i s process, i s a r e l a t i v e l y recent area of s o c i a l enquiry. In t h i s chapter l i t e r a t u r e and re-search relevant to the present study are discussed and com-pared. The chapter i s organized into three sections d i s -cussing the r e l a t i o n s h i p of s o c i a l i z a t i o n , s i t u a t i o n , and iden t i t y to parenting intentions. The f i r s t section focuses on how the s o c i a l i z a t i o n process serves to influence the l i f e s t y l e choices individuals make. In t h i s segment studies which explore the relati o n s h i p of c u l t u r a l factors, r e l i g i o n and et h n i c i t y i n pa r t i c u l a r , to reproductive choices are discussed. Literature and research are also included that explore the impact that s o c i a l i z a t i o n experiences in the family of or i g i n may have on parenting intentions. In p a r t i c u l a r , studies that have shown b i r t h order and family size to be related to future childbearing decisions are reviewed. The second section delineates how s i t u a t i o n a l factors may impact parenting choices. Issues surrounding employment and motherhood are discussed, and cost-benefits models of 16 decision-making are presented. Research exploring the re l a t i o n s h i p between s i t u a t i o n a l factors, education and occupation i n p a r t i c u l a r , and reproductive choices i s reviewed. The f i n a l section examines the research and l i t e r a t u r e relevant to the proposal that i d e n t i t y structures, self-esteem and gender-role i d e n t i t y i n p a r t i c u l a r , are associated with the choice to have children or not. Parenthood decision-making appears to involve a complex int e r a c t i o n of s o c i a l i z a t i o n , reason and emotion. Neither t h e o r e t i c a l models nor empirical evidence have yet provided a s a t i s f a c t o r y understanding of exactly how these factors i n t e r a c t . Although no clear pattern i s yet i n evidence, most of the researchers have found a variety of factors to be s i g n i f i c a n t l y associated with parenting intentions. Studies that have demonstrated the significance of a combi-nation of factors w i l l be discussed throughout the review in appropriate sections/ i n order to compare and contrast the various findings and the conclusions that have been drawn. S o c i a l i z a t i o n Factors According to some s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t s attitudes towards childbearing are i n part determined by c u l t u r a l norms (Haas, 1974; Veevers, 1980) . Haas (1974) has proposed that the so-c i a l i z a t i o n process may be s u f f i c i e n t l y e f f e c t i v e to cause most people to accept without question the virtues and v a l -ues of ch i l d r e n . S o c i a l i z a t i o n models of f e r t i l i t y behavior 17 suggest that reproductive intentions and decisions are the outcome of a process of s o c i a l i z a t i o n toward p a r t i c u l a r v a l -ues influencing behavior (Fox, Fox & Frohardt-Lane, 1982). Models of s o c i a l i z a t i o n emphasize imitation, modeling, iden-t i f i c a t i o n , and sanction contingent learning as the major processes through which people come to incorporate the v a l -ues and b e l i e f s of others (Fox et al.) The question becomes how and from what sources are f e r t i l i t y related values transmitted (Fox et a l . ) . Pronatalism i s any attitude or p o l i c y that exalts moth-erhood and encourages parenthood f o r a l l (Burgwyn, 1981) . In our pr o n a t a l i s t society, the notion that i t i s normal, necessary, and natural for individ u a l s to bear children pre-v a i l s (Veevers, 1980). Femininity has t r a d i t i o n a l l y been connected with bearing and caring for children (Veevers, 1980) and pronatalism involves the basic idea that a woman's role should involve maternity (Barnett & Macdonald, 1986). The parenthood choice i s between a s o c i a l l y acceptable and a s o c i a l l y unacceptable a l t e r n a t i v e . The consequences of ac-cepting either choice, and the impact of s o c i e t a l pressures and sanctions regarding both options, may be important con-siderations influencing reproductive decisions (Daniluk, 1982). Social and c u l t u r a l organizations such as r e l i g i o n s , ethnic groups, and families may reinforce varying degrees of pronatalism. Within t h i s context individuals make t h e i r re-productive choices. 18 Religion. Association with and p a r t i c i p a t i o n in a r e l i g i o u s com-munity involves a person in a s o c i a l context in which spe-c i f i c sexual and f e r t i l i t y values and orientations are ar-t i c u l a t e d (Fox et a l , 1982). Pronatalist tenets are embed-ded within r e l i g i o u s doctrines. The words of God c i t e d in Genesis are to "be f r u i t f u l and multiply." Roman Catho l i -cism i s among the most pr o n a t a l i s t of f a i t h s with i t s view that the sole purpose of sexual intercourse i s procreation (Burgwyn, 1981). A s t r i c t interpretation of both Catholic and Jewish law would require annulment or divorce in cases of intentional childlessness (Burgwyn, 1981). Many r e l i -gious doctrines espouse the b e l i e f that procreation i s a necessary c r i t e r i o n for marital f u l f i l l m e n t (Daniluk, 1982; Harris, Durkin & Flores, 1979; Pohlman, 1969). Through the moral pressures imposed by r e l i g i o u s tenets, parenthood be-comes a duty, and childlessness becomes a form of aberration (Campbell, 1985). Vo l u n t a r i l y c h i l d l e s s people tend to be non-religious i n comparison to people with children (Burman & de Anda, 1986; Feldman, 1981; Ory, 1978; Ramu, 1986; Toomey, 1977; Veevers, 1980), suggesting that r e l i g i o n has an impact on reproductive choices. Veevers (1980) was among the f i r s t to take an i n t e r e s t i n the subject of voluntary childlessness. Her 1980 book e n t i t l e d C h i l d l e s s by Choice i s a summary of in depth i n t e r -views with 156 v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e persons over a time pe-r i o d beginning i n 1972. The age range of the respondents 19 varied considerably from 23 to 78, with a mean age of 35. The people interviewed were found to be generally similar on several demographic and socio-psychological t r a i t s . C h i l d -free individuals were found to be similar i n t h e i r families of o r i g i n : t h i s w i l l be discussed in d e t a i l in a la t e r sec-t i o n . Childfree i n d i v i d u a l s were above average i n t h e i r ed-ucational and occupational attainments, and had high s e l f -esteem. One c h a r a c t e r i s t i c that p a r t i c u l a r l y served to d i s -tinguish c h i l d f r e e i n d i v i d u a l s from the general population was that they tended to be non-religious. Three-quarters reported that they had no r e l i g i o n . Even among those per-sons who claimed a nominal a f f i l i a t i o n the level of r e l i -g i o s i t y was exceedingly low, as measured by r i t u a l involve-ment, by private b e l i e f , or simply by l e v e l of in t e r e s t . Veevers' findings must be viewed as very tentative and ex-ploratory. No comparison group was used and the interview format was open-ended and unstructured. Her work served to lay the groundwork from which further, more structured re-search could take place. Toomey (1977) conducted an exploratory-descriptive study of 981 college women to measure the amount of intended voluntary childlessness within the group, and to i d e n t i f y variables which discriminated between women who intended and did not intend to have children. She found that 11 percent of the 981 women reportedly did not intend to bear children. From the o r i g i n a l sample, 63 women who did not intend to be-come mothers and 175 women who intended to have children 20 were further compared on 53 demographic and a t t i t u d i n a l variables. Data were analyzed using both univariate and multivariate procedures. Findings indicated that women who did not intend to have children d i f f e r e d s i g n i f i c a n t l y from those who did i n that they had more eg a l i t a r i a n attitudes about the role of wife and were more l i k e l y to consider themselves feminists. Consistent with the findings of Veevers (1980), Toomey's (1977) res u l t s indicated that women choosing childlessness had higher educational and occupa-t i o n a l levels and desired work excellence. However, the two groups of women did not d i f f e r i n the size and structure of the i r families of o r i g i n , or i n t h e i r estimations of s e l f -competence and self- e v a l u a t i o n . The group of women intend-ing no children was s i g n i f i c a n t l y less l i k e l y than the other group to be a f f i l i a t e d with an organized r e l i g i o n , and was s i g n i f i c a n t l y less l i k e l y to have been reared in the Catholic t r a d i t i o n . Ory (1978) used a semi-structured questionnaire to com-pare 27 v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d l e s s couples and 54 voluntary par-ents on a wide range of normative, sociodemographic, and psycho-social v a r i a b l e s . Like the individuals in Veevers' (1980) and Toomey's (1977) studies, c h i l d f r e e individuals were much more l i k e l y to be currently employed and highly educated than parents. Like Veevers (1980), Ory found the two groups d i s t i n c t i n t h e i r families of or i g i n (these f i n d -ings w i l l be discussed i n more d e t a i l in la t e r sections). Ory found that r e l i g i o u s attitudes and behaviors d i s t i n -21 guished indiv i d u a l s with d i f f e r e n t reproductive choices (p_ <.05). Childfree individuals were s i g n i f i c a n t l y more l i k e l y to consider themselves non-religious and were s i g n i f i c a n t l y less l i k e l y to attend r e l i g i o u s services than parents. In addition, non-parents were s i g n i f i c a n t l y more l i k e l y to de-clare themselves as atheists or agnostics. Ory suggested that the findings that nonparents held s i g n i f i c a n t l y fewer t r a d i t i o n a l r e l i g i o u s attitudes and engaged i n fewer r e l i -gious behaviors than parents r e f l e c t e d a r e j e c t i o n of r e l i -gions whose doctrines are characterized by pronatalism. Ory did not report that possible interaction effects between the variables measured were accounted for in the analysis of data, c a l l i n g into question the v a l i d i t y of these findings. Ramu (1986) conducted research on the re l a t i o n s h i p be-tween demographic factors and f e r t i l i t y choices. F i f t y c h i l d f r e e couples and 58 parental couples returned mailed questionnaires. S i g n i f i c a n t age differences found between the groups were cont r o l l e d for in the analysis. Ramu found that two variables, education (discussed in a l a t e r section) and r e l i g i o s i t y were s i g n i f i c a n t i n distinguishing between the two groups. A s i g n i f i c a n t association was found between low r e l i g i o s i t y and deliberate childlessness. Childfree i n -dividuals were much more l i k e l y to be agnostic: 45.6 percent compared to 8.2 percent of the parent group. Twenty-five percent of parental couples reported r e l i g i o n to have a strong influence i n t h e i r l i v e s compared to 3.5 percent of the c h i l d f r e e couples. 22 The findings of these studies were consistent i n that r e l i g i o n had a strong negative correlation with voluntary childlessness. Religion has been emerging throughout the research as a factor that quite consistently distinguishes between people based on t h e i r parenting intentions, suggest-ing that r e l i g i o n has a powerful influence on f e r t i l i t y decision-making. E t h n i c i t y . C u l t u r a l background variables may be expected to have an impact on f e r t i l i t y through the transmission of f e r t i l i t y r e lated values (Fox et a l . , 1982). Few studies of voluntary childlessness have examined ethnic differences (Boyd, 1989). Hoffman (1987) analyzed data from the "Cross National Values of Children Study" a survey conducted i n 1975 i n which 1,000 to 3,000 women under age 40, and one quarter of th e i r husbands from each of eight countries were interviewed regarding the psychological s a t i s f a c t i o n s children are per-ceived as providing f o r t h e i r parents. A secondary purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between the values of children to parents, and f e r t i l i t y attitudes and behavior. The researcher found that the three most common needs children s a t i s f i e d , i n descending order, were (1) eco-nomic u t i l i t y , (2) the need for primary t i e s and a f f e c t i o n or love, and (3) the need for fun and stimulation. For Turkey, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, the most common value of children was economic u t i l i t y . This value was much less frequent i n the United States. Primary t i e s 23 and a f f e c t i o n was the value most commonly expressed by i n d i -viduals in the United States. Stimulation and fun was the value most common in Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. Accord-ing to Hoffman (1987) the economic value of children was most often linked to greater f e r t i l i t y desires, and was par-t i c u l a r l y s a l i e n t i n countries where there was no o f f i c i a l provision for care of the aged and disabled. The data from the Cross-national Values of Children Survey was also used i n an e a r l i e r study by Hoffman and Manis (1979) to examine f e r t i l i t y motivations among ethnic groups within the United States. S i g n i f i c a n t differences were found in that the desired family size of black respon-dents was greater than for whites, even when c o n t r o l l i n g for education. Economic-utilitarian values were mentioned s i g -n i f i c a n t l y more often by black parents than white parents (P_ ^ -001) . Based on the findings of these studies, Hoffman (1987) proposed that children may s a t i s f y c e r t a i n basic needs for parents and these needs may vary depending on c u l -t u r a l values and s o c i a l structures. Fox et a l . (1982) attempted to support the s o c i a l i z a -tion model of f e r t i l i t y decisions with a research project interviewing g i r l s aged 14 to 16 as well as t h e i r mothers, with p a r t i c u l a r emphasis on family of o r i g i n variables. Two dependent variables were chosen for the study: the preferred age of the teenage g i r l s for i n i t i a t i o n of childbearing, and the t o t a l number of children desired. Demographic, a t t i t u -d i n al, and behavioral information was obtained from 449 24 g i r l s and t h e i r mothers, 56 percent of whom were black and 44 percent white. A large number of c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s were analyzed from six general categories: family characteris-t i c s , mother's attitudes, mother-daughter relationship, daughter's current s i t u a t i o n , daughter's sexual p r o f i l e , and daughter's attitudes. For each independent variable set, three stepwise multiple regression analyses were run, one for the t o t a l sample and one for each of the races sepa-r a t e l y . For the dependant variable relevant to the present study, intended number of children, three of the six sets of independent variables were s t a t i s t i c a l l y s i g n i f i c a n t : fam-i l y c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s , mother's attitudes, and daughter's at-titudes. Only two variable sets emerged as s i g n i f i c a n t pre-dict o r s of family size intentions among black daughters: daughter's sexual p r o f i l e and daughter's attitudes. By way of contrast, for white daughters the family c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s set and the mother's attitudes set each accounted for over 8 percent of the variance i n family size attitudes. Fox et a l . did not indicate i n what way the independent variables were s i g n i f i c a n t , making i t d i f f i c u l t to gain a clear under-standing of how s o c i a l i z a t i o n factors impact f e r t i l i t y i n -tentions. The researchers concluded that there was evidence that the process of f e r t i l i t y s o c i a l i z a t i o n operated d i f f e r -ently by race since d i f f e r e n t predictor variables were s i g -n i f i c a n t for blacks and whites. The findings of the three studies on ethnicity suggest that ethnic differences do have a re l a t i o n s h i p to p a r i t y . 25 None of the studies however were d i r e c t l y concerned with zero p a r i t y preferences, which are s i g n i f i c a n t l y d i f f e r e n t from simply d e s i r i n g low p a r i t y . Ethnicity i s not a factor considered i n most studies which focus on c h i l d f r e e people. Most of the research i s conducted on Caucasian i n d i v i d u a l s , but t h i s may be as much a matter of bias in sample selection as a r e f l e c t i o n of actual population d i s t r i b u t i o n s . More research i s needed to determine i f c u l t u r a l norms and values are transmitted through the s o c i a l i z a t i o n process and the impact of these i n determining parenting intentions. Religion and possibly e t h n i c i t y appear to be i n f l u e n t i a l i n f e r t i l i t y decisions. In the present study, the researcher w i l l attempt to determine more f u l l y the nature of the r e l a -tionship between r e l i g i o n , e t h n i c i t y , and parenting inten-tions . Family of O r i g i n . Some th e o r i s t s have proposed that the wish to avoid or adopt the parenthood r o l e may be traced back to childhood and adolescence (Campbell, 1985; Houseknecht, 1979; Veevers, 1980). How i n d i v i d u a l s come to acquire the meanings that inform t h e i r reproductive behavior i s a process that may be-gin in childhood, influenced by the form and nature of fam-i l y l i f e (Campbell, 1985). Early childhood experiences en-courage children to i n t e r n a l i z e values and motivations (Gerson, 1985), and to anticipate playing future adult r o l e s (Campbell). Campbell has theorized that i t i s within the 26 family of o r i g i n that s o c i a l i z a t i o n for parenthood begins, and individuals who r e j e c t or accept parenthood do so on the basis of t h e i r childhood experience and observation of fam-i l y l i f e . The family of o r i g i n i s the primary context of s o c i a l i z a t i o n of the young c h i l d and continues to be s i g n i f -icant i n l a t e r years as well (Fox et a l . , 1982). Veevers' (1980) research on 156 voluntarily c h i l d f r e e individuals found that half of the subjects interviewed were f i r s t borns. Through interviews, Veevers found that many of the women had experienced the " l i t t l e mother syndrome," where they had to care for younger s i b l i n g s . Veevers also reported that a much higher proportion of the c h i l d f r e e cou-ples interviewed were only children, as compared with the general population. Some of these only children spoke of child-care anxiety a r i s i n g from t h e i r inexperience with children. Preliminary interviews conducted by Veevers c a l l for more structured research to support or contest her f i n d -ings . Ory's (1978) research using semistructured question-naires to compare 27 c h i l d f r e e couples with 54 parents found that the two groups were distinguished by their early back-ground experiences with respect to family position, c h i l d -care r e s p o n s i b i l i t y , and t h e i r mothers' work h i s t o r i e s and attitudes towards t h e i r parenting r o l e . Although f i r s t borns were over-represented i n both populations, there were s i g n i f i c a n t l y more only children among non-parents and f a r fewer last-borns. The mothers of non-parent females tended 27 to be more involved i n working outside the home. In addi-tion, c h i l d f r e e women (excluding only children) were s i g n i f -i c a n t l y more l i k e l y to have had some child-care r e s p o n s i b i l -i t i e s as children than women who were parents. Toomey's (1977) comparison of 63 women who did not i n -tend to become mothers with 175 women who did intend to have children did not substantiate the research of Veevers (1980) or Ory (1978). The two groups in Toomey's (1977) study did not d i f f e r i n size and structure of family of o r i g i n , nor did they d i f f e r i n b i r t h order. The differences in these findings might be accounted for by the fact that Toomey's research focused on early a r t i c u l a t o r s whereas Veevers' and Ory's research concentrated on women who had experienced l i v i n g with t h e i r reproductive choices. Possibly d i f f e r e n t factors influence reproductive decisions at intentional and behavioral stages. Hendershot (1969) hypothesized that children acquire norms i n t h e i r f a m i l i e s of o r i g i n which la t e r influence t h e i r own family planning decisions in such a way as to cause them to recapi t u l a t e similar demographic structures. This r e c a p i t u l a t i o n i s believed to be affected by the per-ceptions the i n d i v i d u a l holds as to the success of the fam-i l y i n f u l f i l l i n g i t s functions. If the individual was sat-i s f i e d with the performance of t h e i r family they may be more l i k e l y to r e t a i n i t s norms. A sample of 389 freshmen women were asked t h e i r preferred family size. Responses were grouped into small (0-2), medium (3-4) and large (5 or more) 28 family size preferences. A strong positive c o r r e l a t i o n (p_fi .01) was found between the size of a subject's family of ori g i n and t h e i r preferred family size. Controlling for perceptions of " s o l i d a r i t y " i n subjects' families of o r i g i n did not eliminate the association found, but the association was progressively greater between family sizes for each higher l e v e l of family s o l i d a r i t y . Because t h i s study was conducted many years ago i t may no longer be as s i g n i f i c a n t for the present cohort of young women. Hendershot (1969) did not d i r e c t l y explore the chi l d f r e e option, but the f i n d -ings support the hypothesis that women from small families are subjected to d i f f e r e n t normative influences than women from large ones, and that t h i s has an effect on p a r i t y . Some of the above studies indicate a tendency for women to forgo parenting i f they were from small families of o r i -gin or i f they were eldest children. Researchers have sug-gested that women who were eldest children and were burdened with the care of younger s i b l i n g s are more l i k e l y to forego having children (Burgwyn, 1981; Faux, 1984; Ory, 1978; Veev-ers, 1980). According to Burgwyn (1981), though secure and competent i n c h i l d care, these women know the drudgery i n -volved, o f f s e t t i n g the j o y f u l picture presented by pronatal-ism (Burgwyn, 1981). Some women i n the position of eldest c h i l d may have perceptions that t h e i r childhood r e s p o n s i b i l -i t i e s l i m i t e d t h e i r choices and personal freedom and growth (Faux, 1984). The r e s p o n s i b i l i t y of caring for younger s i b -lings may contribute to a non-romantic image of ch i l d r e a r i n g 29 and a consequent d i s i n c l i n a t i o n toward the parental role (Campbell, 1985). Researchers have speculated that only children may be disproportionately represented in the vo l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e population because they are unaccustomed to babies and f e e l trepidation i n dealing with the unknown (Burgwyn, 1981; Veevers, 1980) . One c h i l d families do not represent c u l -t u r a l norms of the "family i d e a l " , and growing up in t h i s s i t u a t i o n may f a c i l i t a t e questioning the i n e v i t a b i l i t y and d e s i r a b i l i t y of those norms (Campbell, 1985). One of the ways to transmit intergenerational f e r t i l i t y values i s through parental f e r t i l i t y behavior; the objective evidence of parental actions speaks for i t s e l f (Fox et a l , 1982). In other words, parents who l i m i t the number of children they produce may transmit to t h e i r offspring through t h e i r behavior the idea that l i m i t i n g reproduction i s a p o s i t i v e value. Although f i r s t borns and women from small families seem to choose childlessness more often than others, there i s not enough research to provide a clear pattern of the effects of childhood family constellations on parenting attitudes. Researchers have suggested that these patterns emerge out of normative influences and s a t i s f a c t i o n with experiences i n childhood (Hendershot, 1969; Lichtman, 1976). More research i s needed to c l a r i f y i f these s o c i a l i z a t i o n factors do i n fact have an e f f e c t on parenting intentions. 3 0 Situational Factors As women gain more control over t h e i r f e r t i l i t y , and as more options become avail a b l e to them, parenthood decision-making may take place on an i n d i v i d u a l level rather than as a r e s u l t of s o c i a l i z a t i o n experiences (Beckman, 1977, 1982; Gerson, 1986; Townes et a l , 1977; White & Kim, 1987). Ac-cording to some t h e o r i s t s rational-instrumental models of decision-making are becoming more v a l i d in f e r t i l i t y decision-making than models that emphasize moral-traditional or normative influences (Beckman, 1977; Gerson, 1986; Sweet, 1982). Under the 1950s baby-boom f e r t i l i t y pattern marriage could almost be equated with parenthood since, for most cou-ples, reproduction usually began immediately aft e r mar-riage (Sweet, 1982) . Today, reproduction may be becoming a matter to be considered i n something approximating cost-benefits terms, rather than simply a concomitant of marriage (Sweet, 1982) . Theorists who adhere to r a t i o n a l i s t i c models of f e r t i l -i t y decision-making propose that several variables influence the desire to have a c h i l d . These include the value of children and a l t e r n a t i v e sources of the value, as well as costs or degree of s a c r i f i c e involved in having a c h i l d . Barriers and f a c i l i t a t o r s are those variables that make i t more d i f f i c u l t or easy to r e a l i z e the value, such as eco-nomic depression or prosperity, or a v a i l a b i l i t y of help 31 (Gormly et al.,1987; Haas, 1974; Hoffman, 1974). The "Subjective Expected U t i l i t y " (SEU) model of f e r t i l i t y decision-making proposed by Campbell et a l . (1982) regards reproduction as an outgrowth of a rat i o n a l decision-making process. From t h i s perspective an individual's subjective perceptions of the gains and losses associated with parent-hood leads them to maximize these gains and/or minimize these losses. The decision may be based on both an i n d i v i d -ual's s i t u a t i o n and on t h e i r i d e n t i t y structures which af-fect how they subjectively interpret t h e i r s i t u a t i o n . What i s needed i s a systematic assessment of the factors i n an individual's s i t u a t i o n and ide n t i t y that weigh most heavily upon reproductive decisions (Campbell et a l . , 1982). Employment and motherhood may be thought of as two com-peting r o l e s , each with rewards and costs of varying inten-s i t i e s . Women may choose t h e i r amount of int e r a c t i o n i n each of the situations depending on th e i r personal reward-cost outcomes (Beckman, 1977). Empirically, women's labor force p a r t i c i p a t i o n has been shown to be negatively associ-ated with childbearing (White & Kim, 1987; Ritchey & Stokes, 1974; Sweet, 1982;). This may occur because working pro-vides a rewarding alt e r n a t i v e to childbearing, or because work demands a commitment that makes high p a r i t y very d i f f i -c u l t (Epenshade, 1977). The conventional career expectation i s b u i l t on the assumption that i n order to pursue a serious career, one must be single minded about that work (Wilk, 1986). C o n f l i c t s may ar i s e for women when they are consid-32 ering whether a f l e d g l i n g career and professional i d e n t i t y can be maintained along with maternal commitments (Wilk, 1986). For many women today, work and family decisions are inextricably linked; choices in one sphere depend on oppor-t u n i t i e s , incentives, and constraints imposed by the other (Gerson, 1986). Some younger women, p a r t i c u l a r l y those who are well-ed-ucated, may be coming to define work in the same ways men have always done. For these women work i s a means not only to earn money, but also to gain prestige, esteem or worth, and independence and autonomy (Baruch et a l , 1983; Gerson, 1985; Scanzioni & Scanzioni, 1976). Burgwyn (1981) has de-lineated some of the issues women face when combining a ca-reer and motherhood. A career tends to become more compli-cated and demand greater r e s p o n s i b i l i t y and expertise as i t evolves. It often requires a long term personal commitment and i s an i n t e g r a l part of a person's l i f e (Burgwyn, 1981). It i s too s i m p l i s t i c to say that some careers mesh well with parenthood and others don't; the si t u a t i o n depends on per-sonal energy l e v e l s , husband wife re l a t i o n s , and many other factors. But unquestionably certain professions pose spe-c i a l problems f o r women, p a r t i c u l a r l y careers, such as medicine and law, i n which un p r e d i c t a b i l i t y and long hours are a way of l i f e (Burgwyn). Highly prestigious and promis-ing careers which are l i k e l y to include a l o t of upward mo-b i l i t y demand a commitment that does not always allow time for a baby. Burgwyn has suggested that stepping off the 33 ladder i n a rewarding and advancing f i e l d can pr e c i p i t a t e a loss of place along with the p o s s i b i l i t y of never regaining i t , p a r t i c u l a r l y i n executive and technical jobs. According to Burgwyn, c h i l d f r e e women have an advantage in that with-out the r e s p o n s i b i l i t y of c h i l d care they can stay late at work, s o c i a l i z e a f t e r hours, take on extra t r a i n i n g and re-s p o n s i b i l i t y , and r e a l i z e the l i m i t s of t h e i r c a p a b i l i t i e s in the work sphere. The present study w i l l explore the pos-s i b i l i t y that women choosing such careers with high prestige and promise are more l i k e l y than t h e i r peers to be intending to forgo parenthood. An issue of possible relevance to parenting intentions i s female dominated versus male dominated career choice. Faux (1984) has suggested that for many years women who trained for careers did so with an eye on how t h e i r career choices would accommodate motherhood. Women who hoped to become mothers gravitated toward nursing, teaching, or l i -brary work, because the work was thought to offer "practice" for motherhood, and because the hours accommodated children. Gerson (1985) has proposed that these patterns have not changed substantially, despite the massive movement of women into the work force. In our society the labour market i s segmented by sex, with most women relegated to a set of jobs that o f f e r low wages, prestige, and advancement opportuni-t i e s compared with those awarded men, and th i s segregation spans the class structure from service.and c l e r i c a l p o s i -tions to the professions. According to Gerson a woman's 34 defining r o l e i s s t i l l a domestic one; work t i e s remain ten-uous and family r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s s t i l l take precedence. Gerson, l i k e Faux, has suggested that the kinds of paid labour that women do are usually extensions of domestic caretaking duties. I t has often been argued that sex d i f -ferences in career choice largely r e f l e c t the choices women make to work at jobs that pay less but allow them to combine work and motherhood (Waite, Haggstrom & Kanouse 1986). "Scholars of sex d i f f e r e n t i a l s in attainment in the labor market have long looked to the d i v i s i o n of labor i n the fam-i l y — e s p e c i a l l y childbearing and r e a r i n g — a s one source of these d i f f e r e n t i a l s " (Waite et a l . , p.43). The present study w i l l explore the p o s s i b i l i t y of a re l a t i o n s h i p between parenthood choice and female or male dominated career choices. Campbell (1985) conducted a study of v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d -free couples contacted through a family planning c l i n i c i n Scotland. The study consisted of unstructured interviews of seventy i n t e n t i o n a l l y c h i l d f r e e couples. Campbell reported that the women she interviewed, though from a higher status and better educated section of the community, appeared con-tent to l i m i t t h e i r ambitions to t r a d i t i o n a l l y feminine oc-cupations and work as secretaries, clerks, nurses, and school teachers. Unfortunately, Campbell did not provide s p e c i f i c numbers i n each occupation to substantiate her claim, instead d i v i d i n g the women into broad occupational categories of professional, intermediate, and manual occupa-35 tions. Further much more rigorous research i s needed sup-port or negate Campbell's proposal that childfree women choose t r a d i t i o n a l l y female dominated occupations. Barnett and MacDonald (1986) conducted research on a sample of 334 members of the National Alliance of Optional Parenthood (NAOP) an organization of volu n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e people. In addition to demographic information, respondents were asked to complete the Work Values Inventory (WVI), an instrument developed to assess the goals which individuals seek in t h e i r jobs and as a re s u l t of the i r jobs. The re-searchers did not use a comparison group, instead r e l y i n g on a 1968 standardization sample of grade twelve students for the WVI, and "national averages" for the demographic compar-isons. The v a l i d i t y of t h i s study may be questioned because of the p o s s i b i l i t y of cohort and age eff e c t s . The findings of t h i s study were s i m i l a r to those of Campbell (1985) . NAOP members were more oriented toward work which permits freedom of action and thought, and which involves a variety of tasks. These c h i l d f r e e individuals de-emphasized work which y i e l d s prestige, money, material goods, and security. Their occupational lev e l s were not as high as th e i r educa-tion would permit them to be. The NAOP members exceeded the general population i n education and income, but i n education more than income, i n d i c a t i n g an economic de-emphasis. In contrast to the studies discussed above by Campbell (1985) and Barnett and MacDonald (1986), in research con-ducted by Veevers (1980) on vo l u n t a r i l y childfree people 36 half of the women were committed to a demanding profession. At a time when the average woman earned approximately s i x t y percent of what a man would earn i n a similar position, the volu n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e couples in Veevers study shared almost equal earnings, with women earning on average f o r t y - f i v e percent of t h e i r combined incomes. The women interviewed said that childlessness was a c r i t i c a l factor in f a c i l i t a t -ing t h e i r career involvement. According to Veevers, these women were ambitious and had a high degree of commitment to thei r work. Bram (1984) conducted research to determine i f volun-t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e women were less t r a d i t i o n a l i n t h e i r sex-role orientation as determined by the i r behavior, attitudes and s e l f image. Thir t y v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e women, 29 women who were currently c h i l d f r e e but planning to have children in the future, and 24 parents were asked closed and open-ended questions regarding t h e i r sex-role orientations. The c h i l d f r e e women were s i g n i f i c a n t l y d i f f e r e n t from both the delaying and parental women on the behavioral variable of achievement, as measured by educational and occupational status. The c h i l d f r e e women were s i g n i f i c a n t l y more l i k e l y than the delays or parents to have attained a professional or doctoral degree or to have some graduate school t r a i n i n g (p_ < .001). The c h i l d f r e e women were s i g n i f i c a n t l y more l i k e l y to be i n professional than nonprofessional occupa-tions (p_ < .02). In addition, the childfree subjects were more l i k e l y to be i n occupations that were t r a d i t i o n a l l y 37 male dominated (p_ £ .001) . Bram's findings are si m i l a r to Veevers's (1980) findings but d i f f e r e n t from Campbell's (1985) and Barnett and MacDonald's (1986) findings. One possible explanation for these differences may be the re-search methods used to measure educational and occupational attainments. The study by Ramu (1986) discussed previously compared 58 couples with children and 50 couples who were v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e . In an analysis of data c o n t r o l l i n g for sex, Ramu found no s i g n i f i c a n t educational and occupational d i f f e r -ences between husbands and no differences between wives on occupational l e v e l s . Differences between c h i l d f r e e women and mothers i n educational q u a l i f i c a t i o n s showed c h i l d f r e e women to be s i g n i f i c a n t l y more highly educated than mothers. The study d i d not trace the educational development of re-spondents through l i f e - c y c l e phases; the decision to remain c h i l d l e s s may have led some women to pursue education, but for others commitment to educational success may have re-sulted i n a decision to be c h i l d f r e e . Ramu proposed that for the c h i l d f r e e , a commitment to children i s replaced by a commitment to educational advancement and occupational suc-cess. As a suggestion for future research Ramu proposed that the reproductive intentions and the educational and oc-cupational choices of individuals be compared at an e a r l i e r stage i n the l i f e - c y c l e to better determine the re l a t i o n s h i p between these variables. 38 Houseknecht (1978) conducted a research project to de-termine the factors associated with the childbearing inten-tions of college undergraduates. Using interviews and ques-tionnaires, a sample of 27 vol u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e women who were early a r t i c u l a t o r s was compared with a sample of 27 women intending to have children who were similar i n r e l i -gion, marital status, and ethni c i t y . Houseknecht 1s findings indicated that c h i l d f r e e women were s i g n i f i c a n t l y more l i k e l y to come from mother dominated families and to have developed a psychological distance from t h e i r families dur-ing adolescence. Childfree women were characterized as be-ing achievement oriented and autonomous, as measured by the Omnibus Personality Inventory. Differences i n marriage i n -tentions were found between the two groups i n that c h i l d f r e e women were s i g n i f i c a n t l y more l i k e l y to overtly r e j e c t or were uncertain about the notion of marriage. Further s i g -n i f i c a n t differences were found i n that only 30 percent of the c h i l d f r e e women mentioned f a m i l i a l roles as an important l i f e goal, as compared to 74 percent of the intentional par-ents. Childfree women were s i g n i f i c a n t l y more concerned with achievement i n vocational than i n personal spheres (70% compared to 26% of the child-intending women). An important finding i n Houseknecht's (1978) study was that the majority of individuals who desired no children had some degree of reference group support for t h e i r c h i l d f r e e decision. Houseknecht proposed that s o c i a l support for the ch i l d f r e e option i s very important i n that i t helps to a l l e -39 viate the effects of pressures and negative sanctions levied by pronatalism. Those who approve of or model childlessness may enable individuals to re t a i n a positive i d e n t i t y by means of supportive i d e n t i f i c a t i o n . The present study w i l l further explore Houseknecht's findings by attempting to de-termine i f c h i l d f r e e women are more l i k e l y to know another woman who i s v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e . Evidence of reference group support i n the form of older ch i l d f r e e women may sup-port Houseknecht's proposal that supportive i d e n t i f i c a t i o n plays a role in parenting intentions. Houseknecht (1978) attempted to construct a model from her research findings which proposed that the two family of orig i n factors she found to be s i g n i f i c a n t , mother-dominated families and subject's psychological distance from t h e i r families/ produce an achievement orientation and an indepen-dence that are operationalized as awareness and acceptance of alternative roles to wife and mother. This predisposi-tion, accompanied by a b e l i e f that the advantages of the chil d f r e e role outweigh the disadvantages, and by reference group support, i s believed to lead to acceptance of the chi l d f r e e option. Houseknecht did not perform s t a t i s t i c a l tests of t h i s model on the data from her research, therefore i t i s purely t h e o r e t i c a l . Though interesting, patterns throughout the research are not yet clear or consistent enough to support t h i s model. Jensen, Christensen, and Wilson (1985) investigated whether young women's motivations for parenting versus work 40 were influenced by the perceived rewards and costs of the two ro l e s . Respondents included 8 3 female undergraduate students aged 18 to 2 3 . Role choice was determined using a seven point scale on which subjects rated themselves from 1: desiring to be a parent and not work outside the home to 7: desiring to not be a parent and work f u l l time. Likert-type scales were used to determine the perceived rewards and costs of the parenting and work roles. Using a sequence of multiple regression analyses, i t was found that the reward-cost perceptions of parenting and work were predictors of the two motivational options. An important finding was that the preference for a f u l l - t i m e career and not to be a parent resulted not from perceptions of work, but from perceptions of parenting, which were seen as both costly and unreward-ing. For both r o l e preferences the perception of parenting was more important than the perception of work. Jensen et a l . and Houseknecht (1978) both include early a r t i c u l a t o r s , unlike a l l the other studies which are retrospective i n na-ture. Retrospective studies make i t d i f f i c u l t to determine i f career commitment was a f a c i l i t a t o r , or simply a r e s u l t of the c h i l d f r e e option. Although both Houseknecht and Jensen et a l . found vocational concerns to be s i g n i f i c a n t factors, Jensen et a l . found the respondent's perception of parenting to be more important i n determining t h e i r parent-ing intentions. More research i s needed at the early stages of the childbearing decision process to determine the r o l e of educational and occupational factors. 41 Beckman (1977) conducted a study to determine i f women d i f f e r in t h e i r perceptions of the rewards and costs of par-enthood and alt e r n a t i v e r o l e s . One hundred and twenty-three women were divided into six equally sized subgroups based on their work status (professional and nonprofessional) and parity (no children, small families, and large f a m i l i e s ) . Beckman (1977) did not indicate whether the child f r e e women were committed to permanent childlessness, but a l l the sub-jects were i n t h e i r late childbearing years. The six groups were compared using an interview schedule including ques-tions about s a t i s f a c t i o n s and costs of parenthood and em-ployment, as well as employment, educational, and demo-graphic data. Findings indicated that the professional women associated higher general costs with parenthood than did nonprofessional women and they also associated higher rewards with employment. Professional women were more l i k e l y to be Jewish than the nonprofessional women, and a l -though they did not d i f f e r s i g n i f i c a n t l y by race, more blacks were included i n the nonprofessional sample. The au-thor suggested that, although beyond the scope of the study, these sociodemographic factors may have causal effects on group differences i n motivation for parenthood. Beckman's research revealed that the perceived consequences of a de-si r e for children, as compared to the consequences of a l t e r -native roles, were found to be i n f l u e n t i a l i n subject's f e r -t i l i t y intentions and actual behavior concerning b i r t h plan-ning practices. Beckman's (1977) research, while not en-42 t i r e l y explaining the decision-making process, suggests that a social-exchange approach could be valuable in the explana-tion of f e r t i l i t y intentions and behavior. Motives emerge out of situations and perhaps no one situation w i l l invariably produce meanings to motivate avoidance or acceptance of parenthood (Campbell, 1985). To understand childlessness, however, i t i s necessary to at-tempt to i d e n t i f y situations that provide individuals with the opportunity to consider roles other than parenthood (Campbell, 1985) . There are some indications in the re-search that a re l a t i o n s h i p does exist between f e r t i l i t y de-cisions and career and educational choices. The research to date seems to indicate that women who choose to be c h i l d f r e e tend to be oriented to a work focus more than a f a m i l i a l sphere of in t e r e s t . Throughout the studies c h i l d f r e e women consistently present a p r o f i l e of being highly educated, and some studies have indicated that c h i l d f r e e women are more often involved i n highly s k i l l e d and professional careers than women who are parents. Much of the empirical work tak-ing the approach that women with a greater work commitment are more l i k e l y to r e s t r i c t t h e i r f e r t i l i t y has taken a rather questionable c i r c u l a r approach by basing conclusions on the amount of p r i o r work experience subjects have (Sweet, 1982). If work commitment or career orientation are invoked as operative in the w o r k - f e r t i l i t y relationship, they need to be measured p r i o r to, and independent of, the work expe-rience (Sweet, 1982) . More research i s needed to determine 43 i f education and occupation are factors predisposing women to voluntary childlessness, or i f they are a consequence of not having children. For many women, motherhood i s s t i l l a primary source of i d e n t i f i c a t i o n and f u l f i l l m e n t . Today, women increasingly have other resources through which they can develop a strong id e n t i t y (Faux, 1984). Childbearing and labor force p a r t i c -ipation are not mutually exclusive roles for women. Never-theless, working and a career may be seen as alternatives to childbearing for women who are comparing choices for invest-ment and reward (White & Kim, 1987). If women make r a t i o n a l decisions about the extent to which they invest i n t h e i r own s k i l l s , then those who expect to concentrate t h e i r a c t i v i -t i e s p r i m a r i l y or exclusively on home and family may make r e l a t i v e l y few investments in t h e i r own job s k i l l s . Those who expect non-familial roles may more often acquire knowl-edge and t r a i n i n g useful in the job market (Waite et a l . 1986) . For some women, trade-offs between career objectives and family considerations may occur when they f i r s t begin to think about t h e i r adult futures (Waite et a l , 1986). The present study w i l l explore the p o s s i b i l i t y that women who plan to have children are more l i k e l y than those who do not to invest less i n t h e i r educational and occupational pur-su i t s , and are more l i k e l y to take a t r a d i t i o n a l l y female occupation. If a difference exists t h i s may indicate that young women's reproductive intentions involve a cost-bene-f i t s decision-making process. 44 Identity Structures Social s c i e n t i s t s have considered the p o s s i b i l i t y that the personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the ind i v i d u a l are relevant to procreative desires. Gerson (1986) has postulated that possibly, as greater r o l e choices become available to women, the decision to become a parent emerges from complex iden-t i t y structures, rather than from more external and socio-l o g i c a l l y based varia b l e s . Hoffman and Levant (1985) have suggested that motherhood i s such a powerful mandate that to opt out requires a strong set of personal values which v a l i -date such a non-traditional choice. Postulations about the relationship between psychological variables and parenting choices have led to some preliminary research exploring these r e l a t i o n s h i p s . Some s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t s have theorized that women who are v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d l e s s are emotionally and mentally ab-normal (Deutsch, 1944; Erikson, 1964; Freud, 1961) . Freud (1961) and t r a d i t i o n a l Freudian psychoanalysts adhere to the be l i e f that motherhood i s essential to the healthy feminine psyche. In describing the development of the female c h i l d Freud (1961) states She gives up her wish for a penis and puts i n place of i t a wish f o r a c h i l d : and with that purpose i n view she takes her father as a love object. Her mother be-comes the object of her jealousy. The g i r l has turned into a l i t t l e woman (p. 256). 45 Deutsch (1944) suggested that women are by nature passive and masochistic, and that pregnancy f u l f i l l s the deepest and most powerful female need: those without that need have a "masculinity complex." Erikson (1964) proposed that there are eight progressive stages of development and the c r i s i s of each stage must be successfully resolved for "normal" hu-man development. F a i l u r e to reproduce f o i l s the seventh stage of "generativity", the establishment and guidance of the next generation. According to Erikson (1964) "The woman who does not f u l f i l l her innate need to f i l l her "inner space", or uterus, with embryonic tissue i s l i k e l y to be frustrated or neurotic" (p.590). Recent research has not substantiated such proposals that v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e women are neurotic, immature, or otherwise psychologically abnormal (Burgwyn, 1981; Callan, 1987; Campbell, 1985; Greenglass & Borovilos, 1985; Ruch, 1985; Veevers, 1980) . There are indications, however, that women with variant parenting intentions can be distinguished on several psychological variables. High self-esteem and a non-traditional gender-role i d e n t i t y are two t r a i t s that, i n some studies, seem to d i f f e r e n t i a t e v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e women from t h e i r counterparts (Burman & de Anda, 1986; Gerson, 1986; Greenglass & Borovilos, 1985; Veevers, 1980) . Gender-role i d e n t i t y Greenglass and Borovilos (1985) have suggested that personality factors, p a r t i c u l a r l y those associated with t r a -46 d i t i o n a l gender roles, should be examined in exploring women's parenthood intentions. According to gender role ideology, d i f f e r e n t personality t r a i t s are assigned to males and females i n accordance with t h e i r s o c i a l l y prescribed gender r o l e (Greenglass & Borovilos, 1985). Gender role refers to the t o t a l range of behaviors that label the degree to which one i s masculine, feminine, or undecided (Wilk, 1986). One's gender-role i d e n t i t y i s defined as the degree to which a person endorses feminine and masculine character-i s t i c s as s e l f - d e s c r i p t i v e (Bern, 1974). The t r a d i t i o n a l feminine gender-role includes expressive t r a i t s , mothering and caring for others, nurturance, passivity, dependence and s e n s i t i v i t y . The t r a d i t i o n a l male role encourages achieve-ment i n instrumental goals, power, dominance, and indepen-dence (Greenglass & Borovilos, 1985). Social s c i e n t i s t s no longer consider masculinity and femininity to be opposite ends of a bipolar dimension, but rather they are seen as two independent dimensions (Bern, 1974). A man or woman can be both aggressive and nurturant, or have neither of these c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . The concept of psychological androgyny implies f l e x i b i l i t y of sex-roles/ because people who f i t t h i s description have a variety of both masculine and feminine t r a i t s . Because androgynous i n -dividuals do not have sex-role images to maintain, they can engage in whatever behavior seems most e f f e c t i v e , regardless of whether i t i s stereotyped as appropriate for either males or females (Bern, 1974; Schaffer, 1980) . People who do not 47 conform to t r a d i t i o n a l gender-roles are perhaps freer to en-gage in non-traditional behavior. Sweet (1982) and Kupinsky (1977) have proposed that a modern or t r a d i t i o n a l sex-role orientation i s causally r e -lated to both work and f e r t i l i t y and produces the associa-tion between the two behaviors. Kupinsky has hypothesized that the more modern, instrumental and i n d i v i d u a l i s t i c a woman's sex-role orientation, the more l i k e l y she i s to per-ceive the economic and psychological benefits of working as greater than the economic and psychological benefits of bearing and rearing children, and thus to be more strongly committed to her worker r o l e and to r e s t r i c t her family si z e . Conversely, the more t r a d i t i o n a l , family-centered a woman's sex-role orientation, the more l i k e l y she i s to per-ceive the economic and psychological benefits of childbear-ing and rearing as greater than the benefits of working. Watkinson (1984) studied the role of psychological an-drogyny, locus of control, and marital s a t i s f a c t i o n in i n d i -viduals who were v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d l e s s . A c o r r e l a t i o n a l survey was conducted with a t o t a l of 90 individuals: f i f t e e n married couples i n three groups who were v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d -less, intended parenting, and parenting were administered the Bern Sex-role Inventory (BSRI, Bern 1974), as well as a measure of marital s a t i s f a c t i o n and locus of control. No si g n i f i c a n t r e l a t i o n s h i p was found between voluntary c h i l d -lessness and scores on the BSRI. Si g n i f i c a n t differences were found i n that v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d l e s s females were more 48 often internal in t h e i r locus of control, and the voluntar-i l y c h i l d l e s s men and women were found to have a higher mar-i t a l s a t i s f a c t i o n than those who intended parenting or were parenting. The findings of t h i s study need to be i n t e r -preted with caution because the sample groups consisted of both males and females. In determining gender-role iden-t i t y , sex differences are l i k e l y to obscure any other d i f -ferences. The females and males were compared separately and, when broken down into these smaller groups, the numbers may have been too small to be a representative sample. Cohen (1984) attempted to i d e n t i f y some of the person-a l i t y and family background variables that distinguish women who state an intention not to parent from those who do i n -tend to mother. Subjects were students in an introductory psychology course: 34 women who were very certain they i n -tended to parent and 26 women who were moderately or very certain they intended not to parent. Perceptions of parents were measured using the Parent Behavior Form, and findings suggested that c h i l d f r e e women were less i d e n t i f i e d with the i r mothers and saw t h e i r mothers as less warm than women who intended to parent. Sex-role i d e n t i t y was measured us-ing the Bern Sex-role Inventory (Bern, 1974). Unlike Watkinson (1984), Cohen (1984) found that the women who intended to remain c h i l d f r e e were more l i k e l y to have a masculine sex-role i d e n t i t y and were lower i n femininity than the women who intended to be mothers. Cohen's (1984) findings support Kupinsky's (1977) proposal that the more instrumental and the less t r a d i t i o n a l a woman's sex-role orientation, the more l i k e l y she i s to l i m i t her family s i z e . Teicholz (1977) undertook a search for psychological correlates of voluntary childlessness in married women. Three clusters of personality t r a i t s were measured pertain-ing to s o c i a l adjustment, mental health, and sexual iden-t i t y . Two groups of married women aged 23 to 38 from simi-l a r educational and socioeconomic backgrounds were compared Thirty-eight women who had decided to never have children were compared to 32 who were planning to have t h e i r f i r s t c h i l d within a two year period. The study found no s i g n i f i cant differences between the two groups of women on any of the scales of the C a l i f o r n i a Psychological Inventory or on the Franck Drawing Completion t e s t . The measure on which the two groups d i f f e r e d s i g n i f i c a n t l y was the Bern Sex-role Inventory. The v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d l e s s group was more l i k e l y to score i n the androgynous category, the masculine sex-typed category, or the undifferentiated category; the women planning to have children were more l i k e l y to score in the feminine sex-typed category. These r e s u l t s , l i k e Cohen's (1984), suggest that there i s a rel a t i o n s h i p between volun-tary childlessness and a non-traditional gender-role in women. Gerson (1980) conducted a multivariate exploration of motivations for parenthood i n 184 unmarried, c h i l d l e s s , f e -male college undergraduates. The Index of Parenthood 50 Motivation (IPM, Gerson, 1980) was developed by the researcher to assess the most important aspects of the wish to parent. R e l i a b i l i t y data for the measure was found to be .85. The v a l i d i t y of the measure was limited, r a i s i n g the question as to whether parenthood motivation was being e f f e c t i v e l y measured, however the IPM was found to have s i g n i f i c a n t discriminant v a l i d i t y for known groups including adoption seekers and members of the National Organization of Non-Parents (Gerson, 1986) . B i r t h order was not found to be s i g n i f i c a n t l y related to parenthood motivation, contrasting Veevers (1980) and Ory's (1978) findings, and supporting Toomey's (1977) findings. Gerson (1980) did f i n d however, that women from large families (3 or more siblings) expressed more desire for children than women from smaller families. Religious a f f i l i a t i o n was not related to parenthood motivation, i n contrast to a l l the other studies discussed i n which r e l i g i o n was a variable. Gerson's (1980) findings indicated that p o s i t i v e memories of early childhood maternal love, antifeminist sympathy and t r a d i t i o n a l feminine sex-role i d e n t i f i c a t i o n were the primary unique variables accounting f o r expressed desire for children. Sex-role i d e n t i t y was measured by the Bern Sex-role Inventory (Bern, 1974) . Instead of measuring Androgyny by the usual means of a median computation, the score was computed by the product of the Masculinity and Femininity scores, with the separate Masculine and Feminine components p a r t i a l l e d out 51 for the purpose of regression analysis. This methodology l i m i t s comparisons between studies. Though the four studies above used the same measure of sex-role i d e n t i t y , c o n f l i c t i n g r e s u l t s were found i n that Cohen (1984), Teicholz (1977) and Gerson (1980) found s i g -nificance where Watkinson (1984) did not. The three studies that did f i n d s i g n i f i c a n t differences showed d i f f e r e n t r e l a -tionships between gender-role i d e n t i t y and parenting inten-tions and choices. Gender-role i d e n t i t y seems to be related to parenting choices, but the exact nature of the r e l a t i o n -ship i s not yet obvious. More research i s needed to gain a clearer picture of the rel a t i o n s h i p between sex-role iden-t i t y and parenting intentions. In general, research seems to indicate that women opt-ing out of parenthood are not characterized by stereotypi-c a l l y feminine t r a i t s (Gerson, 1980; Hoffman, 1975; Veevers, 1980; Waite et a l . , 1986). In t h i s study the relat i o n s h i p between gender-role i d e n t i t y and parenting intentions w i l l be further explored by examining the gender-role i d e n t i t i e s of college women with d i f f e r i n g parenting intentions. Self-esteem Self-esteem can be defined as the evaluation which people make and customarily maintain with regard to themselves. It expresses an attitude of approval or disapproval and indicates the extent to which individuals believe themselves to be capable, s i g n i f i c a n t , successful, 52 and worthy (Coopersmith, 1967). Self-esteem i s a personal judgement of worthiness that i s expressed in the attitudes individuals hold towards themselves (Coopersmith). According to Coopersmith self-esteem i s associated with personal s a t i s f a c t i o n and e f f e c t i v e functioning. Persons with high self-esteem are generally happier and more eff e c t i v e in meeting environmental demands than persons with low self-esteem (Coopersmith). People with low self-esteem are generally less capable of r e s i s t i n g pressures to conform than people with high self-esteem, who appear to maintain a f a i r l y consistent p o s i t i v e image of t h e i r c a p a b i l i t i e s and d i s t i n c t i o n s as individ u a l s (Coopersmith). Coopersmith proposed a r e l a t i o n s h i p between self-esteem and conformity based on the assumption that people with negative s e l f -attitudes place d i f f e r e n t values on s o c i a l p a r t i c i p a t i o n , possibly needing to seek s o c i a l approval and status to obtain a favorable self-evaluation. Persons who regard themselves negatively may be i n c l i n e d to be passive i n adapting to environmental demands and pressures, while those who place a higher value upon themselves w i l l adopt a more active and assertive position (Coopersmith). This viewpoint may have implications for the present research inquiry, suggesting that women with high self-esteem may be better equipped to step outside the s o c i a l l y approved r o l e of motherhood. According to Gergen (1971), when there i s a dissonance between the role an in d i v i d u a l chooses to accept and her at-5 3 titudes towards appropriate women's roles, there i s a r e s u l -tant lowering of self-esteem. Baruch et a l . (1983) have suggested that when women f e e l they are defying the dictates of society, they often f e e l self-doubt and suffer from a threatened loss of self-esteem. "We are affected by what others expect of us, and when we are not doing what society expects of us, we f e e l threatened." (Baruch et a l . 1983, p.40). From t h i s perspective, rather than self-esteem af-fecting conformity, conformity pressures a f f e c t self-esteem. If t h i s i s the case, then women who fe e l they are d i f f e r e n t for not wanting children may have low self-esteem. Confor-mity pressures could be seen as having an impact at the i n -tentional as well as the behavioral level of parenthood decision-making because self-esteem i s a self-evaluative judgement and young women who desire childlessness might f e e l s e l f doubt i n response to so c i e t a l attitudes. Burman and de Anda (1986) compared 30 i n t e n t i o n a l l y c h i l d l e s s individuals with 46 parents who had exerted an equal amount of control over t h e i r family s i z e : that i s the parents had planned the number, timing, and spacing of t h e i r children. The sample consisted of s l i g h t l y more women than men i n both groups. The two groups were markedly si m i l a r with regard to t h e i r families of or i g i n with the exception that more c h i l d l e s s individuals came from single parent fam-i l i e s , c o n f l i c t i n g with the findings of Ory's (1978) and Veevers's (1980) research. A s i g n i f i c a n t difference in re-l i g i o s i t y was found between the two groups: f i f t y - t h r e e 54 percent of the c h i l d l e s s versus 13 percent of the parents were not p r a c t i c i n g members of an organized r e l i g i o n . This finding confirms the results of most of the other studies discussed that c h i l d f r e e individuals are less l i k e l y to have strong r e l i g i o u s a f f i l i a t i o n s . Two personality characteris-t i c s d i f f e r e n t i a t e d between the groups: the c h i l d l e s s sub-jects had s i g n i f i c a n t l y higher self-esteem on the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory, and they were s i g n i f i c a n t l y lower in conformity than the parents. The researchers suggested these personality differences might be connected to the willingness of c h i l d f r e e individuals to make a choice that i s frequently considered to be deviant. In the analysis of the data the sex of the participants was not controlled f o r , l i m i t i n g the p o s s i b i l i t y of generalizing and comparing the r e s u l t s . Feldman (1981) conducted a comparative study of 42 i n -t e n t i o n a l l y parental couples and 37 i n t e n t i o n a l l y c h i l d l e s s couples on a va r i e t y of factors. Feldman did not discuss the s t a t i s t i c a l treatment of the data i n d e t a i l , making i t d i f f i c u l t to assess the v a l i d i t y of differences that were claimed to be s i g n i f i c a n t . The two groups were found to d i f f e r s i g n i f i c a n t l y i n r e l i g i o u s orientation; the parental couples were more l i k e l y Protestant or Catholic, and the c h i l d l e s s couples were more l i k e l y to have no r e l i g i o u s af-f i l i a t i o n . Feldman found no s i g n i f i c a n t differences in the educational or occupational status of the husbands, but the c h i l d f r e e wives were more l i k e l y to be employed and had 55 higher levels of education (p_ c .01). A non-standardized series of questions designed by the researcher was used to determine sex-role attitudes, and on t h i s measure women i n -tending parenthood were more l i k e l y to have t r a d i t i o n a l at-titudes towards women (p_ < .001). The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory (Rosenberg, 1965) was used to assess self-esteem. No s i g n i f i c a n t difference was found between the two groups for either men or women in levels of self-esteem suggesting that reproductive choices are not associated with s e l f - e s -teem . Gerson (1986) conducted a study s i m i l a r to her 1980 study using older subjects (mean age 28) instead of college students, and subjects of both sexes (113 women and 75 men). The Index of Parenthood Motivation discussed previously was used i n t h i s study to measure parenthood motivation. Re-sults were analyzed for females and males separately by mul-t i p l e regression, with a h i e r a r c h i c a l ordering of sets of independent variables. The resu l t s of t h i s study re p l i c a t e d Gerson 1s (1980) previous findings that for women, psycholog-i c a l factors accounted for greater variance i n parenthood motivation than did demographic variables. In contrast, for men demographic variables alone accounted for differences i n motivation. Gerson (1986) suggested that t h i s finding i s a recent trend and a manifestation of greater sex-role related choices for women. The decision of whether to become a par-ent may no longer come sol e l y from external and s o c i o l o g i -c a l l y based variables, but from a complex structure of per-56 sonality and ide n t i t y . Three variables were found to s i g -n i f i c a n t l y distinguish between women based on t h e i r parent-hood motivations: (1) narcissism was negatively related to parenthood motivation, which Gerson (1986) notes i s a re-verse of the notion that women might want a c h i l d for nar-c i s s i s t i c reasons. (2) memories of father's love were posi-t i v e l y related to motivation for parenthood, a reversal of Gerson's 1984 study. (3) women with strong motivations for parenthood had low self-esteem as measured by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965). The s i g n i f i c a n t d i f -ferences i n self-esteem scores found between the two groups of women i n thi s study contrast with the findings of Feldman's (1981) study where no differences were found using the same measure. This contrast might possibly have been a res u l t of a difference between the measurement of parenthood motivation and actual reproductive behavior. Another possi-ble explanation for the contrast may be that Feldman's study included i n s u f f i c i e n t numbers of women for accurate general-iz a t i o n s . The re l a t i o n s h i p between low self-esteem and high parenthood motivation found i n Gerson's study seems to i n d i -cate a d i f f e r e n t explanation than the p o s s i b i l i t y , proposed by Burman and de Anda (1986), that women need to have high self-esteem to maintain a c h i l d f r e e l i f e s t y l e . Gerson sug-gested that women with d i f f i c u l t i e s i n self-concept may s t i l l look to motherhood as compensation for t h e i r d e f i c i e n -cies in an e f f o r t to restore self-worth through serving the needs of others. 57 The studies by Burman and de Anda (1986) and Gerson (1986), tend to support Coopersmith's (1967) proposal that self-esteem i s r e l a t e d to conformity in that individuals with high self-esteem step outside the s o c i a l l y approved role of parenthood more often than those with low s e l f - e s -teem. The findings of a l l three studies discussed have d i f -ferent implications for the rel a t i o n s h i p of self-esteem to parenting choices. Burman and de Anda (1986) determined that c h i l d f r e e women have higher self-esteem, whereas Feldman (1981) found no s i g n i f i c a n t difference, and Gerson (1986) found women highly motivated for parenthood had low self-esteem. More research i s needed to understand the re-lationship between parenting intentions and self-esteem. Research r e s u l t s are beginning to tentatively i l l u m i -nate some of the factors associated with childbearing inten-tions. S o c i a l i z a t i o n factors, p a r t i c u l a r l y r e l i g i o n , seem to be associated with parenting intentions. Some, though not a l l , of the studies have found that childfree women are non-religious, from smaller families, and more often f i r s t born than women opting f o r parenthood. Ethnicity i s a so-c i a l i z a t i o n factor that has the p o s s i b i l i t y of a f f e c t i n g parenting intentions but research i s very sparse in t h i s area. S i t u a t i o n a l factors are emerging out of the research as important in the parenthood choice process. In some studies c h i l d f r e e women appear to aspire to higher occupa-t i o n a l and educational goals than women with children. Some 58 of the research has indicated that gender-role i d e n t i t y and self-esteem are i d e n t i t y structures that distinguish between people with varying parenting intentions. Several studies have shown that v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e women have non-tradi-t i o n a l gender-role i d e n t i t i e s and high self-esteem in com-parison to women who intend to adopt or have adopted the parenting r o l e . An important finding by Houseknecht (1978) that has not received further attention in the research, was that the majority of individuals who desired no children had some degree of reference group support for t h e i r decision. These findings cannot yet be considered conclusive. No s i n -gle factor has consistently been s i g n i f i c a n t in a l l studies, and a finding i n one study i s not always rep l i c a t e d i n simi-l a r studies. In most of the research sample sizes are small and selection procedures non-random, l i m i t i n g the generaliz-a b i l i t y of the r e s u l t s . Clearly a l l the facts are not i n ; more research i s needed to enhance the body of knowledge about which factors are relevant to parenting intentions. L i t t l e research has been done on the parenting inten-tions of young women. Choosing a cohort of young women as the focus of the present study has a twofold purpose. The f i r s t i s to explore whether s o c i a l changes and new peer group have resulted i n new factors becoming relevant to par-enting intentions. Gerson (1980), and Cohen (1984) compared college women with d i f f e r i n g parenting intentions and moti-vations for parenthood. The findings of these two studies seem to indicate that early a r t i c u l a t o r s of the c h i l d f r e e 59 option are oriented towards a more non-traditional gender-role than young women desiring children, possibly suggesting that younger women are beginning to make the i r parenthood choices on a more i n d i v i d u a l l e v e l . The second reason for choosing to study younger women i s to permit an exploration of parenting intentions before these preferences are compli-cated by other intervening variables, or distorted by a r e t -rospective viewpoint. Studies of early a r t i c u l a t o r s by Toomey (1977) and Houseknecht (1978) indicate that c h i l d f r e e women desire achievement in vocational spheres more often than young women des i r i n g parenthood. Although these two studies are not current, they do suggest that s i t u a t i o n a l factors are s i g n i f i c a n t to young women's parenting inten-tions. The present researcher w i l l attempt to determine whether young women's parenting intentions are associated with t h e i r educational and occupational plans. If women are found to d i f f e r at the intentional l e v e l of reproductive de-cision-making, t h i s may suggest that educational and occupa-t i o n a l factors have an a p r i o r i impact on parenting inten-tions and are not simply the re s u l t of a p a r t i c u l a r l i f e s t y l e . In the past parenthood was prescribed for a l l married couples, despite t h e i r preferences and personal compatibil-i t y for the r o l e . However, with the growing number of ap-pealing and f u l f i l l i n g r o l e options becoming available, par-t i c u l a r l y f or women, individuals need to c a r e f u l l y assess . the i r options and select roles which w i l l bring them the 60 greatest degree of s a t i s f a c t i o n . When making reproductive decisions, i n d i v i d u a l s need to understand how the s o c i a l i z a t i o n process may serve to influence parenting intentions, and have fa c t u a l information about s i t u a t i o n a l factors and i d e n t i t y factors which may be sal i e n t to t h e i r decision. The present researcher w i l l attempt to illuminate the psychosocial and s i t u a t i o n a l factors associated with parenthood options that may be important considerations for women making reproductive decisions. Based on a review of the l i t e r a t u r e , several factors appear to be emerging as s i g n i f i c a n t i n distinguishing women based on th e i r parenting choices. B i r t h order and size of family of or i g i n , r e l i g i o n , e t h n i c i t y , supportive i d e n t i f i c a t i o n , education, occupation, self-esteem, and gender-role i d e n t i t y are some of the factors that appear to play a role i n parenting intentions and behaviors. There i s a need to have knowledge of the characteris-t i c s which d i f f e r e n t i a t e between individuals who intend to have childre n and those who vo l u n t a r i l y intend not to have children. If we can learn about the possible r e l a t i o n s h i p between s o c i a l i z a t i o n , s i t u a t i o n a l , and id e n t i t y factors and reproductive intentions, we w i l l be providing information which may, i n time, enhance reproductive decision-making ease and may f a c i l i t a t e s a t i s f a c t i o n with reproductive choices. Based on a review of the relevant l i t e r a t u r e , the following hypotheses were generated: 61 Hypotheses Problem Statement What are the s i m i l a r i t i e s and differences between women who d e f i n i t e l y intend to have children ("definitely yes"), women who probably intend to have children ("probably yes"), and women who probably or d e f i n i t e l y intend to never have children ("childfree") on the following factors: b i r t h order, size of family of o r i g i n , ethnicity, r e l i g i o n , education plans, occupation plans, self-esteem, gender-role identity, and knowing a v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e woman. Hypothesis One H Q: There w i l l not be a s i g n i f i c a n t association between the parenting intentions variable (the " d e f i n i t e l y yes", the "probably yes", and the "c h i l d f r e e " groups) and the b i r t h order variable (eldest, middle, youngest, and only children). H 1: There w i l l be a s i g n i f i c a n t p r o b a b i l i t y that an associ-ation w i l l e x i s t between the two variables parenting intentions and b i r t h order. "Childfree" respondents w i l l be more often f i r s t born or only children than re-spondents i n the "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" categories. Hypothesis Two H Q: There w i l l be no s i g n i f i c a n t difference between the three parenting intentions groups ("childfree", 62 "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes"), i n the mean num-ber of s i b l i n g s i n subject's families of o r i g i n . H;L : The "Childfree" group w i l l have a s i g n i f i c a n t l y lower mean number of s i b l i n g s than the "probably yes" group and the " d e f i n i t e l y yes" group. Hypothesis Three HQ: There w i l l not be a s i g n i f i c a n t association between the parenthood intentions of participants ("childfree", "probably yes" or " d e f i n i t e l y yes") and the type of re-l i g i o n they practice (Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, none, or other). H^: There w i l l be a s i g n i f i c a n t p r o b a b i l i t y that an associ-ation w i l l e x i s t between parenting intentions and type of r e l i g i o n practiced. "Childfree" participants w i l l be less often a f f i l i a t e d with a r e l i g i o u s denomination than "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" p a r t i c i p a n t s . Hypothesis Four Hg: There w i l l be no s i g n i f i c a n t difference between the mean scores of the "c h i l d f r e e " , the "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" groups on the r e l i g i o s i t y variable (very r e l i g i o u s , somewhat r e l i g i o u s , or not at a l l re-ligious) . 63 : The " c h i l d f r e e " group w i l l be found to have a s i g n i f i -cantly lower mean r e l i g i o s i t y score than the "probably yes" group and the " d e f i n i t e l y yes" group. Hypothesis Five H D: There w i l l be not be a s i g n i f i c a n t association found between the e t h n i c i t y variable ( v i s i b l e minorities ver-sus majority c u l t u r e ) , and the parenting intentions variable. H^: There w i l l be a s i g n i f i c a n t p r o b a b i l i t y that an a s s o c i -ation w i l l e x i s t between the e t h n i c i t y variable and the parenting intentions variable. "Childfree" respondents w i l l be less l i k e l y to have ethnic origins from a v i s i -ble minority than "probably yes" respondents and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" respondents. Hypothesis Six HQ: There w i l l be no s i g n i f i c a n t difference i n the educa-t i o n a l aspirations (two years of university, Bachelor's degree, or graduate school) of participants based on t h e i r parenthood intentions. Hi: The "Childfree" group w i l l have s i g n i f i c a n t l y higher educational aspirations than the "probably yes" group and the " d e f i n i t e l y yes" group. 64 Hypothesis Seven HQ: There w i l l be no s i g n i f i c a n t difference between the three parenting intentions groups in th e i r occupational aspirations scores, as measured by the TSEI2. Hi: The " c h i l d f r e e " group w i l l have a s i g n i f i c a n t l y higher mean score on occupational aspirations than the "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" groups. Hypothesis Eight HQ: An association w i l l not be found between the gender dominance of pa r t i c i p a n t s ' occupational aspirations (male dominated or female dominated career choice) and thei r parenthood intentions. H^: There w i l l be a s i g n i f i c a n t p r o b a b i l i t y that an associ-ation w i l l e x i s t between male or female dominated ca-reer choice and parenthood intentions. Childfree women w i l l be planning to enter occupations that are male dominated at higher frequencies than "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" p a r t i c i p a n t s . Hypothesis Nine HQ: There w i l l be no s i g n i f i c a n t difference i n the mean self-esteem scores of the three parenting intentions groups as measured by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inven-tory. : The " c h i l d f r e e " group w i l l have higher mean self-esteem scores than the "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" groups. Hypothesis Ten HQ: There w i l l be no association between the gender-role i d e n t i t y of respondents, as measured by the Bern Sex-Role Inventory, and t h e i r parenthood intentions. H]_: There w i l l be a s i g n i f i c a n t probability that an associ-ation w i l l e x i s t between the parenthood intentions variable and the gender-role identity variable. The part i c i p a n t s who intend to remain chi l d f r e e w i l l more frequently have masculine or androgynous gender-role i d e n t i t i e s in comparison to "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women, who w i l l more often have femi-nine gender-role i d e n t i t i e s . Hypothesis Eleven HQ: An association w i l l not be found between the parenting intentions variable and whether respondents know a v o l -u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e woman. Hj_: There w i l l be a s i g n i f i c a n t probability that an associ-ation w i l l e x i s t between the parenting intentions v a r i -able and the variable of knowing a vo l u n t a r i l y c h i l d -free woman. "Childfree" women w i l l more often know a v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e woman than "probably yes" women and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women. 67 CHAPTER THREE Methodology Subjects Because the central focus of the present study was par-enthood intentions, subject selection was limited to women who were young, single, and not making t h e i r parenting choices because of f e r t i l i t y problems. An age range of 18 to 26 was chosen i n order to s o l i c i t as many responses as possible, while at the same time l i m i t i n g the p o s s i b i l i t y of cohort e f f e c t s . The assumption was made that by the age of eighteen women have generally begun to think about t h e i r fu-ture parenthood plans. Parental status may have an e f f e c t on future parenthood intentions, therefore only subjects who had not yet experienced parenthood were included as part of the sample. Married women were not included i n the study because of the impact marriage can have on the parenthood decision-making process. As Beckman (1977) has suggested, marriage can involve a couple-based decision-making process, rather than simply i n d i v i d u a l desires and intentions. Subjects who were an t i c i p a t i n g never having children because of f e r t i l i t y problems were not included i n the analysis because issues surrounding i n f e r t i l i t y would influence parenting intentions and were beyond the scope of t h i s study. The subjects for the present study consisted of 381 single female residence students at the University of 68 B r i t i s h Columbia. The sample was derived from a t o t a l of 391 respondents to surveys which were distributed to 1,000 women i n two university campus residences. Ten of the sur-veys were not included i n the analysis. One respondent did not f i t the age requirements. In the remaining 9 surveys important data were missing: one respondent did not indicate her age and the remaining surveys were missing 2 or more responses on the variables, making the surveys unsuitable for analysis. Large sample c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . The average age of the respondents was 20.5 years. T h i r t y - f i v e percent of the women were single and unattached, 30 percent were single but involved with someone, and 35 percent were i n a steady r e l a t i o n s h i p or engaged. Eighty-seven percent of the respondents intended to marry in the future, 10 percent were unsure of th e i r marriage plans, and 3 percent intended to never marry (see appendix A). Most of the women had given some thought to how many children they wanted. Only 2 percent had given almost no thought, 7 percent had given very l i t t l e thought, 58 percent had given some thought, 25 percent had given very much thought, and 9 percent had given a great deal of thought to how many children they wanted. Respondent's parenting intentions were di s t r i b u t e d such that 8.9 percent of the subjects indicated they either d e f i -n i t e l y or probably did not intend to have children. Only 7.3 percent were unsure whether they intended to have c h i l -69 dren or not. One quarter of the women (25.2%) answered that they probably did intend to have children i n the future. The majority of respondents, 58.5 percent, indicated that they d e f i n i t e l y did intend to have children. Respondents were asked to indicated how eagerly they anticipated having children on a scale of 1 (not at a l l ) to 5 (more than anything). The mean answer selected was 4, with 8 percent choosing "1"; 11 percent choosing "2"; 27 percent c i r c l i n g "3"; 42 percent c i r c l i n g "4"; and 11 per-cent choosing "5". Of the women who indicated the age at which they would l i k e to have t h e i r f i r s t c h i l d , the average age was 27.5, with a range from 20 to 40. The average number of children (not including those who answered "zero") was 2.4, with a range from 1 to 5. Approximately one quarter (27 %) of the women indicated that they personally knew one or more v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e women, and 73 percent indicated that they did not. As expected of t h i s select population, respondents had high educational aspirations. Only 0.5 percent planned to attai n two years of uni v e r s i t y or less. Most of the women indicated that they intended to atta i n a Bachelor's or Master's degree. Thirty-seven percent indicated they planned for a Bachelor's degree, and 34 percent indicated a Master's degree. Doctorate degrees were aspired to by 7 percent of respondents, 19 percent planned to a t t a i n a pro-70 fessional degree, and 2 percent did not f i t in any of the categories. The subjects i n the sample had a wide range of occupa-t i o n a l aspirations, the most frequent of which was teaching below the college l e v e l (19%). "Manager, administrator" was a r e l a t i v e l y frequent choice (11%), as were "registered nurse, d i e t i c i a n " (9%) and "lawyer" (8%). The most i n f r e -quent choices were "ar c h i t e c t " (0.5%), "computer s p e c i a l i s t " (0.5%), and "sales worker" (0.8%). The occupational scores on the socioeconomic measure, the TSEI2, ranged from a low of 41 to a high of 89. The mean score for the occupations was 65.7 and the median 59.9, with a standard deviation of 15.8. The women i n the sample were somewhat more l i k e l y to choose an occupation that i s male dominated (according to Canadian Census data) than female dominated. Male dominated occupations were aspired to by 56 percent of the women, and female dominated occupations were aspired to by 44 percent. Respondent's r e l i g i o u s orientations were found to be dist r i b u t e d with 23 percent being Catholic; 0.3 percent be-ing Jewish; 25 percent being Protestant, and 14 percent be-longing to other r e l i g i o u s denominations. Thirty-seven per-cent of the subjects indicated that they did not belong to any r e l i g i o n . When asked to indicated how r e l i g i o u s they were, 8 percent of the subjects indicated that they were very r e l i g i o u s . The majority of the subjects indicated that they were somewhat r e l i g i o u s (43%) or not at a l l r e l i g i o u s (48%). 71 The predominant ethnic background of the sample was Northern European (62%). The breakdown by e t h n i c i t y for the remainder of the subjects was: 12 percent Eastern European, 9 percent Southern European, 6 percent Chinese, 2 percent East Indian, 2 percent Japanese, 0.5 percent Vietnamese, and .3 percent F i l i p i n o . Respondents who chose the "other" cat-egory were distinguished, for the purpose of analysis, as being either a member of the majority culture (4%) or of a v i s i b l e minority (2%). Eighty-eight percent of the subjects had an ethnic background from the majority culture and 12 percent of the subjects had a v i s i b l e minority ethnic c u l -t u r a l background. Forty-four percent of the respondents were f i r s t born children, 15 percent were middle children, and 37 percent were youngest children. Only 4 percent of the sample were only children. Of those respondents with s i b l i n g s , 44 percent had one s i b l i n g , 33 percent had two s i b l i n g s , 11 percent had three s i b l i n g s , 5 percent had four s i b l i n g s , and 4 percent had f i v e or more s i b l i n g s . Sub sample c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . Because a sample was drawn from the t o t a l population sample to provide equal n_groups for the purpose of analy-s i s , the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the small sample w i l l be d i s -cussed here. The small sample consisted of 102 subjects from three equal sized groups. 72 The group of 34 " c h i l d f r e e " women consisted of 10 women who indicated that they d e f i n i t e l y did not intend to have children and 24 women who indicated that they probably did not intend to have children. Combining these respondents was necessary i n order to provide a large enough sample size to conduct meaningful s t a t i s t i c a l analyses. A l i m i t a t i o n imposed by combining women who probably and d e f i n i t e l y intend to remain c h i l d f r e e i s that differences between these two types of parenting intentions may be obscured. However, according to Veevers (1980) the majority of individuals who remain c h i l d f r e e do so through a series of postponments, suggesting that women who early on a r t i c u l a t e that they probably w i l l not have children may very well maintain t h e i r c h i l d f r e e status. Two random samples consisting of 34 "probably yes" women and 34 " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women were drawn from the large sample. The average age of the women i n the small sample was 20.7 years. Forty-three percent of the sample were single, 24 percent were involved with someone, and 33 percent were i n a steady r e l a t i o n s h i p or engaged. Many of the subjects, 78 percent, intended to marry. Five percent did not intend to marry, and 17 percent were unsure regarding t h e i r marriage plans (see Appendix A). As shown in Appendix A, the sub sample i s si m i l a r to, and appears to be representative of the large sample. F i f t y percent of the small sample had given some thought to how many children they wanted. Only 3 percent 73 had given almost no thought, 11 percent had given very l i t t l e thought, 25 percent had given very much thought, and 12 percent had given a great deal of thought to how many children they wanted. On the f i v e point scale of how eagerly subjects anticipated having children, 25 percent of the small sample indicated "1" that they did not at a l l anticipate having c h i l d r e n . In order of ascending anti c i p a t i o n , 18 percent indicated "2", 25 percent indicated "3", 29 percent indicated "4", and only 4 percent indicated "5", that they anticipated having children more than anything. Eighty of the respondents in the small sample answered the question "If you do intend to have children, at- what age would you l i k e to have your f i r s t c hild?" Of these, the me-dian age was 28, with a range from 24 to 40. The mean num-ber of children these subjects indicated they would l i k e to have was 2.2, with a range from 1 to 5. Thirty-four percent of the small sample indicated that they knew a v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e woman no longer capable of bearing a c h i l d . S i x t y - s i x percent of respondents indicated that they did not know a c h i l d f r e e woman. T h i r t y - f i v e percent of the small sample intended to complete t h e i r Bachelor's degrees, 36 percent t h e i r Master's, and 8 percent t h e i r Doctorate. Twenty percent of the sample indicated that they planned to atta i n a profes-sional degree. Of these, 56 percent intended to atta i n a law degree, 30 percent a medical degree, and the remaining 74 choices included two veterinary degrees, and one architec-ture degree. One respondent who indicated the "other" cate-gory for t h e i r occupational aspirations planned to a t t a i n a degree as a foreign aid worker. The occupation most frequently aspired to i n the small sample was a lawyer (13 percent). This was followed by man-ager/ administrator and teacher (except college and univer-sity) , both occurring at a frequency of 12 percent. Seven percent of respondents indicated that they aspired to be a physician or dentist, and an additional seven percent i n d i -cated that they aspired to be a writer, a r t i s t , or enter-tainer. Six percent indicated l i f e and physical s c i e n t i s t as t h e i r occupation goal. An additional six percent i n d i -cated t h e i r occupation goal as a teacher i n a college or university. Five percent of respondents f e l l into the occu-pation category of s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t . The remaining occupa-tions were chosen with a frequency of less than 4 percent. Sixty-six percent of the women chose occupations that were male dominated i n the general population, and 34 percent of the subjects aspired to occupations which were female domi-nated . Forty percent of respondents indicated "none" as t h e i r r e l i g i o n . The remainder of the sample included 22 percent Catholic, 23 percent Protestant, and 16 percent other. In the "other" category, 63 percent were from r e l i g i o n s with a Christian background: four respondents were Anglican, 3 were United, 1 was a C h r i s t i a n , 1 was Greek Orthodox, 1 was a 7 5 Born Again C h r i s t i a n , and 1 was a Lutheran. In addition, 1 respondent was of the Sikh r e l i g i o n , 1 was Shintoist, and 2 were Hindu. F i f t y - t h r e e percent of respondents indicated that they were not at a l l r e l i g i o u s . Thirty-eight percent were somewhat r e l i g i o u s and 8 percent were very r e l i g i o u s . Eighty-five percent of the small sample were from an ethnic background within the majority culture. Fifteen per-cent were from minority culture ethnic backgrounds. Sixty-five percent of the respondents were Northern European, 9 percent were Eastern European, and 8 percent were Southern European. Of the remainder, 7 percent were Chinese, 2 percent were East Indian, 3 percent were Japanese, and 1 percent Vietnamese. In the "other" cate-gory, respondents indicated that they were American, Canadian, or North American, except for one respondent who was of a Hispanic background. Thirty-nine percent of respondents from the small sam-ple were f i r s t born, 22 percent were middle children, 36 percent were youngest, and 3 percent were only children. The average number of s i b l i n g s i n respondent's families of origi n was 1.8, with a range of 0 to 6. Instrumentation The Personal Data Sheet. The Personal Data Sheet (Appendix B), a compilation of questions designed by the researcher, was used to determine the respondent's age, marital status and marriage inten-76 tions, parental status, f e r t i l i t y , and the age and number of children they intended to have. The Personal Data Sheet was also used to determine the respondent's parenting inten-tions, as well as the following variables: (1) educational aspirations (2) occupational aspirations, (3) r e l i g i o n and r e l i g i o s i t y (4) e t h n i c i t y (5) b i r t h order (6) family size and (7) whether or not the respondent knew a v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e woman.' Question 4 "how much thought have you given to how many children you want?" was derived from Kirchner and Seaver's (1977) book on developing measures of parenthood motivation, as were the two questions on b i r t h order and family s i z e . Question 6 "How eagerly do you anticipate having children?" was derived from Gerson's (1986) questionnaire on parenthood motivation. These questions were designed to f a c i l i t a t e comparisons between studies, as well as to provide an under-standing of the r e l a t i o n s h i p between thought, a n t i c i p a t i o n and intention i n regard to parenthood decision-making. TSEI2 The occupation variable was scored using the TSEI2 (Total Socio-economic Index 2), an index of occupational status constructed by Stevens and Featherman (1981) . The scale i s an updated version of the Duncan Socioeconomic Index (Duncan, 1961) . Stevens and Featherman revised Duncan's scale to coincide more clos e l y with modern educational and income c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s , and to provide a scale based on the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the t o t a l labour 77 force. Duncan constructed the o r i g i n a l scale using only the male labour force. Computations for the TSEI2 were made based on f u l l census records from the 1970 American census. Unlike Duncan, who used only 45 occupational c l a s -s i f i c a t i o n s , Stevens and Featherman based t h e i r analysis on 426 occupation t i t l e s from the 1970 U.S. census occupational c l a s s i f i c a t i o n . The TSEI2 was constructed using an exact r e p l i c a t i o n of Duncan's (1961) method of computation. The socioeconomic scores are the predicted scores from a regres-sion equation l i n k i n g occupational prestige to education and income l e v e l s . The measure of occupational prestige was constructed based on an estimate of the proportion of "good" and "excellent" ratings of occupation t i t l e s . The r e l a t i o n -ship between the percentage of "good" and "excellent" r a t -ings was obtained from several measures of prestige for the 45 occupations for which the measures existed, and then es-timated for a l l the 1970 occupational t i t l e s using a regres-sion equation. The educational measure for the TSEI2 was determined based on the percentage of men and women i n each occupation category with one or more years of college. The occupational measure was determined using "the percentage of men and women with incomes of $10,000 or more i n each occu-pation category. The TSEI2 was constructed simultaneously with several other scales i n which Stevens and Featherman (1981) used variations i n the measures of prestige, occupation, and edu-cation. These scales and the o r i g i n a l scale (Duncan, 1961) 78 were so similar in t h e i r ranking of occupations that corre-lations among them approached unity (Stevens and Featherman). An apparent increase i n the importance of edu-cation as a determinant of the s o c i a l evaluation of occupa-tions since 1961 was determined to be due to the biases of the e a r l i e r sample (Stevens and Featherman). A comparison between the TSEI2 and the MSEI2, an i d e n t i c a l l y constructed scale based exclusively on the male population, showed that the range and v a r i a b i l i t y of occupation standing were simi-l a r . A major difference was found between the TSEI2 and the MSEI2 in the standing accorded to sales work, an area in which women were heavily clustered. Although the authors recommended the MSEI2 as the most discerning measure of the ranks of occupations and t h e i r r e l a t i v e s o c i a l distances, they recommended the TSEI2 as more accurate i n scoring the occupations dominated by women, i n which few male incumbents might provide an erroneous estimate of the occupation's r e l -ative standing. Also, i n other occupations, the male based estimator misses the impact of women's education and income ch a r a c t e r i s t i c s on the occupation's place i n the status h i -erarchy (Stevens and Featherman, 1981). The TSEI2 was cho-sen for the present study because i t i s more desirable for the assessment of the occupational aspirations of women. The scale c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the TSEI2 are a range from a low score of 13.88 to a high score of 90.45, with a stan-dard deviation of 22.73. For the present study, 15 general categories were chosen that were determined by the re-79 searcher to be common occupational choices for university educated i n d i v i d u a l s . An "other" category, with a request to specify the occupation was included. For each of the 15 categories, scores were determined by averaging a l l of the occupation scores on the TSEI2 within each of the general categories (Appendix C). For example, "Teacher, except c o l -lege and university" was derived by averaging the scores for (1) adult education teachers, (2) elementary school teach-ers, (3) secondary school teachers, (4) teachers not else-where c l a s s i f i e d . The averaging of individual scores within each general category provided a general occupation score suitable to the present study. Measuring occupational aspi-rations, rather than assessing a p a r t i c u l a r occupation a l -ready attained, required an average score capturing a l l the p o s s i b i l i t i e s within a general occupational goal. In addition to distinguishing occupational choice based on the TSE12 prestige, educational and income characteris-t i c s , occupational aspirations were distinguished based on whether they are male or female dominated occupations. This was accomplished using data from the Canadian census. Census data was used to determine which gender had the largest number of individuals within each occupation cate-gory. If a larger number of males than females were l i s t e d , then the occupation was l a b e l l e d "male dominated". If a larger number of females than males was l i s t e d , then the oc-cupation was l a b e l l e d "female dominated" (Appendix C). 80 Bern Sex Role Inventory. Gender-role i d e n t i t y was determined using the Bern Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI, Bern, 1974) a t e s t instrument used for the independent assessment of psychological femininity and masculinity. The construction of the BSRI i s based on two th e o r e t i c a l assumptions. F i r s t that North American culture has clustered heterogeneous attributes into two mutually ex-clusive categories, each category considered both more char-a c t e r i s t i c of, and more desirable for, females or males (Bern, 1974). These c u l t u r a l expectations and prescriptions are well known by almost a l l members of the culture. Second, individuals vary i n the extent to which they use these c u l t u r a l l y defined i d e a l i z e d standards of femininity and masculinity to determine t h e i r own personality and behavior (Bern, 1981) . Sex-typed individuals are highly attuned to these d e f i n i t i o n s and are motivated to keep t h e i r behavior consistent with them by selecting behaviors and attributes that enhance the s o c i a l l y accepted image and by avoiding behaviors which v i o l a t e t h i s image. In contrast, androgynous individuals are less attuned to these c u l t u r a l d e f i n i t i o n s of femininity and masculinity and are less l i k e l y to regulate t h e i r behavior i n accordance with them (Bern, 1981). "The BSRI i s thus based on a theory about both the cognitive processing and the motivational dynamics of sex-typed and androgynous i n d i v i d u a l s " (Bern, 1981,p.10). The function of the BSRI i s to i d e n t i f y sex-typed i n d i -viduals and thereby enable testing the hypothesis that sex-81 typed individuals have a greater readiness than non-sex-typed individuals to engage in gender s p e c i f i c behavior (Bern, 1981). Femininity and masculinity are defined as the extent to which a person endorses masculine and feminine personality c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s as s e l f - d e s c r i p t i v e (Bern, 1974). H i s t o r i c a l l y and cross c u l t u r a l l y , masculinity and feminin-i t y seem to have represented two complementary domains of positiv e t r a i t s and behaviors (Bern, 1973). Masculinity has been associated with an instrumental, cognitive orientation and a focus on getting the job done. Femininity has been associated with an expressive orientation, and an a f f e c t i v e concern for the welfare of others (Bern, 1973). The BSRI has been chosen for the present research because i t enables testing the hypothesis that women who choose motherhood, a role associated with femininity, have a more feminine gen-der-role ide n t i t y , whereas women who opt out of motherhood are more l i k e l y to have a masculine gender-role id e n t i t y . The BSRI separately assesses psychological femininity and masculinity; the two scores are l o g i c a l l y independent and the structure of the tes t i s such that they are free to vary independently (Bern, 1973). Masculinity and femininity are assumed to be continuous t r a i t s ; an individual can have both masculine and feminine c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . For example a woman or man can be both aggressive and nurturing, or have neither of these c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s (Bern, 1974). The BSRI also i d e n t i f i e s "androgynous" individuals. Androgynous individuals incorporate both masculine and femi-82 nine t r a i t s . They can be both assertive and yieldi n g , both instrumental and expressive, depending on the s i t u a t i o n a l appropriateness of the various behaviors (Bern, 1974). Androgyny implies f l e x i b i l i t y of sex-roles and the a b i l i t y to change behavior in d i f f e r e n t situations. Bern (1975) hy-pothesized that, because they have no sex-role images to maintain, androgynous indivi d u a l s can engage in whatever be-havior seems most e f f e c t i v e , regardless of whether i t i s stereotyped as appropriate for either females or males. Androgynous individuals are assumed to have a wider range of c a p a b i l i t i e s and, depending on what the s p e c i f i c s i t u a t i o n requires, can show assertiveness or warmth and can be equally e f f e c t i v e in both situations (Bern, 1975). These as-sumptions about androgyny have important implications for the present study. Possibly women who are androgynous are more l i k e l y to step outside the t r a d i t i o n a l feminine role i n terms of parenthood choices because they have a broad spec-trum of behaviors and a t t r i b u t e s to choose from. The BSRI consists of 60 items; 20 are t r a d i t i o n a l l y feminine c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s , 20 are t r a d i t i o n a l l y masculine, and 20 are neutral. Subjects indicate on a 7 point Likert scale how well each of the 60 personality c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s describes them. To score the test, items for the Masculinity and Femininity scales respectively are summed, and divided by the number of items rated. Scores are c l a s -s i f i e d on the basis of a median s p l i t . Subjects are c l a s s i -f i e d as feminine i f they have high Femininity scores and low 83 Masculinity scores. They are c l a s s i f i e d as masculine i f they have high Masculinity scores and low Femininity scores. If both Masculinity and Femininity scores are high and ap-proximately equal, respondents are rated as androgynous. If both scores are low, they are rated as undifferentiated. Bern (1981) has recommended that when working with a sample con-taining one sex only, the median from the normative sample be used, rather than the sample's own median. For the pre-sent research, medians of 4.90 for Femininity and 4.95 for Masculinity were used, as calculated from the normative sam-ple. Although the median s p l i t method of scoring the BSRI does not provide a continuous score i t has been used for the present analysis rather than the o r i g i n a l scoring method. This i s because the o r i g i n a l scoring method, which provides a continuous score by subtracting Masculinity from Femininity, has been found to obscure a po t e n t i a l l y impor-tant d i s t i n c t i o n between those individuals who score high on both Femininity and Masculinity and those who score low on both (Bern, 1981). The construction of the scales for the BSRI was accom-plished using 100 Stanford undergraduates who were asked to rate the d e s i r a b i l i t y of 400 personality c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s e i -ther "for a man" or "for a woman" on a 7 point scale. A personality c h a r a c t e r i s t i c q u a l i f i e d as masculine i f i t was independently judged by both males and females to be s i g n i f -i c a n t l y more desirable for a man than for a woman (p_£.05) . Twenty c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s that s a t i s f i e d these c r i t e r i a were 84 chosen for the Masculinity scale, and 20 ch a r a c t e r i s t i c s were selected for the Femininity scale by the same process. In addition to the 40 items constituting the Femininity and Masculinity scales, 20 items were selected to serve as f i l l e r items. O r i g i n a l l y the items were selected because they were judged to be no more desirable for one sex than for the other, however more recent ratings have indicated that the n e u t r a l i t y of these items cannot be considered a r e l i a b l e finding, l i m i t i n g t h e i r use as a measure of desir-a b i l i t y response set (Bern, 1981). Psychometric analyses of the BSRI was based on two sam-ples of subjects, both consisting of undergraduate students at Stanford University. The f i r s t sample consisted of 279 females and 444 males who f i l l e d out the BSRI in 1973. The second included 340 females and 476 males who wrote the BSRI in 1978. In order to estimate the internal consistency of the BSRI, c o e f f i c i e n t alphas were computed separately for males and females i n both samples for the Masculinity and Femininity scores. The re s u l t s showed the scores to be highly r e l i a b l e . In the 1973 sample on the Femininity scale an Alpha of .75 was found for women and Alpha of .78 for men; for the Masculinity scale, Alpha was .87 for women and .86 f o r men. In the 1978 sample the results were: for Femininity, an Alpha of .78 for women and .78 for men; for Masculinity an Alpha of .86 for women and .87 for men. The Masculinity and Femininity scores were found to be empiri-c a l l y as well as l o g i c a l l y independent (average r_ = -.03). 85 Test-retest r e l i a b i l i t y was determined by administering the BSRI for a second time to 28 females and 28 males from the 1973 Stanford sample, four weeks after the f i r s t admin-i s t r a t i o n . The scores proved to be highly r e l i a b l e , with an average r e l i a b i l i t y of r_ = .93, and with the lowest t e s t -retest r e l i a b i l i t y occurring for males describing themselves on the masculine items (r_=.76) . Bern (1981) based content v a l i d i t y for the BSRI on whether i t could discriminate between those individuals who r e s t r i c t t h e i r behavior i n accordance with sex stereotypes and those who do not. In a series of studies on instrumen-t a l and expressive functioning, only androgynous i n d i v i d u -als consistently displayed high levels of behavior i n both domains, whereas non-androgynous individuals were frequently low i n one or the other of the two domains (Bern, 1981). A growing body of research by other investigators has sup-ported the v a l i d i t y of the BSRI by establishing conceptually relevant behavioral correlates (Bern,1981). The r e l a t i o n s h i p between gender-role i d e n t i t y and par-enthood intentions i s important to explore, because mother-hood i s very much a part of the s o c i a l l y prescribed t r a d i -t i o n a l feminine gender r o l e . The BSRI i s a useful i n s t r u -ment to help explore t h i s r e l a t i o n s h i p because i t i s a widely used instrument f o r the measure of gender-role iden-t i t y with respectable r e l i a b i l i t y and v a l i d i t y . Because i t has been used in several studies exploring parenting 86 choices, using the BSRI w i l l f a c i l i t a t e comparisons between the r e s u l t s of the present study and other similar studies. Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg Se l f -Esteem Scale (RSES, Rosenberg, 1965). This scale was de-signed as a measure of global s e l f esteem along a favorable to unfavorable dimension. In designing the self-esteem scale, Rosenberg (1965) defined self-esteem: When we speak of high self-esteem...we s h a l l sim-ply mean that the i n d i v i d u a l respects himself ( s i c ) , considers himself worthy, he does not nec-e s s a r i l y consider himself better than others, but he d e f i n i t e l y does not consider himself worse, he does not f e e l that he i s the ultimate i n perfec-tion but, on the contrary, recognizes his l i m i t a -tions and expects to grow and improve (p. 31) . Low self-esteem implies s e l f - r e j e c t i o n , s e l f - d i s s a t i s f a c -tion, or self-contempt. The s e l f picture i s disagreeable, and the i n d i v i d u a l wishes i t were otherwise (Rosenberg, 1965). The RSES consists of 10 items of the Like r t type which asks respondents to strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with each of the statements (Appendix D). Each statement openly and d i r e c t l y deals with an aspect of self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1965). A high score indicates high self-esteem, and a low score indicates low self-esteem, with each question receiving equal weight. 87 The normative sample for the RSES consisted of 5,024 high school juniors and seniors from 10 randomly selected public high schools in New York. For some of the v a l i d a t i o n work a sample of 50 young adult normal volunteers was used from the c l i n i c a l center of the National Institute of Health. R e l i a b i l i t y and homogeneity for the RSES were de-termined using the Guttman procedure. The r e p r o d u c i b i l i t y of the scale was 92 percent and i t s s c a l a b i l i t y was 72 per-cent. In addition, the RSES showed a test-retest r e l i a b i l -i t y of .85 f o r a group of students retested after two weeks (Rosenberg, 1965). Determining the v a l i d i t y of self-esteem measurements has presented a d i f f i c u l t problem because se l f esteem re-sults from evaluations of the s e l f as an "object", yet i n some of i t s aspects t h i s object i s only available for scrutiny by the subject (Crandall, 1973). In the absence of suitable external v a l i d a t i n g c r i t e r i a , v a l i d i t y can be de-termined by examining r e s u l t s from studies in which re-sponses on the self-esteem instrument successfully predict group differences on other relevant variables, (Crandall, 1973). Several attempts were made by Rosenberg (1965) to de-termine the v a l i d i t y of the RSES. (1) The young adults from the National I n s t i t u t e of Mental Health sample f i l l e d out the RSES and were independently rated by ward nurses on Leary Scales. A s i g n i f i c a n t association was obtained be-tween self-esteem scores and depression, as judged by the 88 nurses. (2) In the larger survey (N=5,024), a s i g n i f i c a n t c o r r e l a t i o n was found between self-esteem and depressive af-fect. Eighty percent of the subjects with the lowest s e l f -esteem scores were highly depressed, compared with 4 percent of the subjects with the highest self-esteem scores. Sixty-nine percent of the subjects with the lowest self-esteem scores manifested symptoms of anxiety, compared with 19 per-cent of the subjects with the highest self-esteem scores. (3) In the same sample of 5,024 a s i g n i f i c a n t c o r r e l a t i o n was found between low self-esteem and a number of psychoso-matic symptoms. (4) Rosenberg (1965) proposed that people with low self-esteem hold a low sociometric status i n a group, that i s they are l i k e l y to be described as commanding less respect than others, and to f e e l that others have l i t -t l e respect for them (Rosenberg, 1965). In a study involv-ing 272 high school seniors there was a s i g n i f i c a n t associa-tion between self-esteem and choice as a class leader. Forty-seven percent of those with the highest self-esteem scores were chosen, compared with 15 percent of those with the lowest self-esteem scores. When respondents were asked the i r opinion of what others think of them, 38 percent of those with the highest self-esteem scores, compared with 8 percent of those with the lowest said "very well" (Rosenberg, 1965). Scores on the RSES correspond s i g n i f i -cantly with objective and subjective assessments of personal s a t i s f a c t i o n and e f f e c t i v e functioning, indicating that i t 89 i s an appropriate instrument for the measurement of s e l f - e s -teem. The convergent v a l i d i t y of the RSES was examined by Silber and Tippet (1965) . A study of 44 college students measured two t r a i t s : global self-esteem and s t a b i l i t y of self-concept. Four d i f f e r e n t methods were used to measure the two t r a i t s : the RSES; the Kelley Repertory Test; a s e l f - i d e a l discrepancy test; the Heath self-image question-naire, dealing with s e l f and s o c i a l - i d e a l discrepancy; and a p s y c h i a t r i s t ' s r a t i n g . The RSES showed convergent v a l i d i t y with measures of the same concept using d i f f e r e n t methods. The correlations of the RSES to the s e l f - i d e a l discrepancy score was r_ = .67; to the self-image questionnaire, r_= .83; and to the p s y c h i a t r i s t ' s rating r_= .56. Other evidence of convergent v a l i d i t y i s Crandall's (1973) finding that the co r r e l a t i o n of the RSES and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory was .60. This scale appears to have been c a r e f u l l y con-structed, and i t s use by Rosenberg indicates that i t can make t h e o r e t i c a l l y meaningful discrimina-tions between groups of adolescents.... Preliminary analysis of Rosenberg's items included i n adult surveys by the Survey Research Center suggests that they are quite a l l r i g h t for t h i s pur-pose ... .Where a short and general index of s e l f -90 esteem i s required, t h i s scale i s recommended (Crandall, 1973, p.99). The RSES has been chosen for the present study because i t appears to be a s a t i s f a c t o r y and straightforward measure of global self-esteem. Because i t has been used i n other studies of parenting intentions, using the RSES w i l l f a c i l i -tate comparisons between the r e s u l t s of the present study and other studies. Procedures One thousand female students i n three student r e s i -dences were given a package i n t h e i r assigned mailboxes con-taining the following: a l e t t e r of introduction (Appendix E), 2 copies of a consent form (Appendix F), a personal data sheet (Appendix B), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory (Appendix D), and the Bern Sex Role Inventory (Bern,1974). Students were asked to complete the surveys and return them to a locked b a l l o t box at the front desk in th e i r residence area. Two weeks a f t e r d e l i v e r i n g the survey, a reminder no-t i c e (Appendix G) was sent out asking students to return t h e i r surveys, whether completed or not, to the front desk of t h e i r residence area. Students were informed that by re-turning the surveys they would be e l i g i b l e to win a dinner for two and a Belgian chocolate Easter bunny. The surveys were picked up from the b a l l o t boxes d a i l y . A l l parts of each completed survey were coded with a s e r i a l number, and the ethics release form was removed and kept separately to ensure c o n f i d e n t i a l i t y . The instruments were scored, and the results were recorded. For the purpose of s t a t i s t i c a l analysis, a l l edu cational aspiration categories at the Masters l e v e l and above were collapsed into a single category in order to ere ate an i n t e r v a l variable with no overlap in educational q u a l i f i c a t i o n s . Although th i s procedure may have obscured differences among respondents, i t allowed more powerful sta t i s t i c a l procedures by providing an i n t e r v a l rather than a categorical variable. Some respondents chose more than one category when asked to indicate t h e i r educational and occupational aspira tions. When more than one response was c i r c l e d the highest score was chosen f o r analysis, rather than averaging the re sponses. This method of scoring was necessary because the education and occupation by sex variables were not continu-ous and were therefore not conducive to averaging of scores Selection of the higher response for analysis was congruent with the d e f i n i t i o n of "aspiration" as "a strong desire for high achievement or the r e a l i z a t i o n of an i d e a l " (Webster, 1984). S t a t i s t i c a l analysis Because the research question was a search for sim i l a r i t i e s and differences between women who do and those who do not intend to have children, s t a t i s t i c a l analysis was lim-92 i t e d to women who had some degree of certainty regarding t h e i r parenting intentions: women who were unsure whether they were going to have children or not were not included in the analysis. As i n the general population, i n the present sample the number of ch i l d f r e e women were few. In order to have a large enough sample size to conduct meaningful sta-t i s t i c a l analysis, i t was necessary to combine women who d e f i n i t e l y did not (N=10) and women who probably did not intend to have children (N=24). To avoid v i o l a t i n g c r i t i c a l s t a t i s t i c a l assumptions the analyses were conducted on groups of equal s i z e . A random sample of t h i r t y - f o u r was drawn from each of the two larger groups: women who probably intended to have children and women who d e f i n i t e l y intended to have children. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to ensure that the random sample was representative of the o r i g i n a l sample. Descriptive s t a t i s t i c s were used to describe the popu-l a t i o n sample. A c o r r e l a t i o n a l analysis was conducted on the sample to search f o r correlations between continuous measures. A chi-square t e s t was used to test the equiva-lency of the three groups on marriage intentions and current marital status. Chi-square tests were used to tes t for associations between the variable parenting intentions, and the categori-c a l variables in the hypotheses: b i r t h order, r e l i g i o u s category, e t h n i c i t y , female or male dominated occupation, gender-role i d e n t i t y , and knowing a vo l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e 93 woman. Lambdas were used to test the strength and d i r e c t i o n of the associations. A MANOVA followed by protected univariate F_ tests were conducted to test for relationships between the variable parenting intentions and each continuous variable: family size, r e l i g i o s i t y , educational aspirations, status of occu-pational aspirations, and self-esteem. A further analysis of s i g n i f i c a n t F_ tests was conducted i n the form of Tukey procedures in order to further understand the significance found. 94 CHAPTER FOUR Results In the present chapter, the r e s u l t s of s t a t i s t i c a l analyses performed on the data w i l l be presented. Data obtained from the " c h i l d f r e e " group and random samples drawn from the "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" groups were u t i l i z e d i n the analyses. Hypotheses were accepted or rejected at the p_ < .05 l e v e l of si g n i f i c a n c e . In order to obtain three groups of equal size, two random samples of 34 subjects were drawn from the "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" groups respectively. A Hotelling's T test was used to determine whether the random samples were representative of the t o t a l sample on the continuous variables. F (5,475) = .55 , p_=.73, indicated that the random samples did not s i g n i f i c a n t l y d i f f e r from the t o t a l sample (see Appendix H). The c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the population sample were examined before analyses were conducted on the variables of interest. A strong p o s i t i v e c o r r e l a t i o n was found between parenting intentions and an t i c i p a t i o n of parenthood (r_ = .88, p_ = . 000) , i n d i c a t i n g that as subjects' anticipation of having children increased, so did t h e i r intentions to have children. Zero c o r r e l a t i o n was found between how much 95 thought subjects had given to how many children they wanted and t h e i r parenting intentions (r_ = .000). A moderate p o s i t i v e c o r r e l a t i o n (r_ = .497, p_f.000) was found between educational aspirations and occupational aspirations as measured by TSEI2 scores. A pos i t i v e c o r r e l a t i o n of t h i s nature i s to be expected because of the similar nature of these two variables. A moderate p o s i t i v e c o r r e l a t i o n was found between BSRI "Masculinity" raw scores and RSEI self-esteem scores (r_ = .48, pj=.000) . A very small correlation was found between the BSRI "Femininity" raw scores and the self-esteem scores (r_ = .15) . A chi-square analysis of the three parenting intentions groups by the marriage intentions produced a significance level of p < .0001, i n d i c a t i n g a s i g n i f i c a n t p r o b a b i l i t y of an association between parenting intentions and marriage-intentions (see table 1). A l l of the " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women intended to marry i n the future. In contrast, only one half of the " c h i l d f r e e " women intended to marry, 36 percent remained unsure and 12 percent did not intend to marry. Most of the "probably yes" women (82 percent) intended to marry, 15 percent, however were unsure and 3 percent (one respondent) did not intend to marry. The Goodman-Kruskal lambda s t a t i s t i c revealed a 24 percent proportional reduction i n error with parenting intentions dependent. Table 1 Crosstabulation of Parenting Intentions by Marriage Intentions MARRIAGE INTENTIONS COUNT EXPECTED VALUE ROW TOTAL INTENT Childfree* Yes 17 No Unsure 12 | 25.7 | 1.7 | 5.7 | CHI-SQUARE 23.11444 Probably Yes D e f i n i t e l y Yes COLUMN TOTAL D.F. 4 27 25.7 1 1.7 5 5.7 33 25.7 0 1.7 0 5.7 77 77.8% 5 5.1% 17 17.2% 33 33.3% 33 33.3% 33 33.3% 99 100.0% SIGNIFICANCE 0.0001 MIN. EXPECTED FREQ. 1.667 * Childfree: D e f i n i t e l y No Children N = 10 Probably No Children N = 24 97 A chi-square analysis of the three parenting intentions groups by present r e l a t i o n s h i p status did not reveal an association between the two variables (see table 2) . This finding suggests that the association found between marriage intentions and parenting intentions was not re f l e c t e d in the present r e l a t i o n s h i p status of respondents. Although "childfree" respondents were less frequently expecting to marry than "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" respondents, they were not less l i k e l y to be presently involved with someone. Subjects were single and unattached, single but involved with someone, or i n a steady relationship or engaged, i r r e s p e c t i v e of t h e i r parenting intentions. An ANOVA was performed to compare the mean age of the three parenting intentions groups. A s i g n i f i c a n t difference was not found to d i s t i n g u i s h the three groups based on age F(2,99) = .539, p_ = .588. A MANOVA was performed to test the hypotheses regarding the continuous variables education, occupation l e v e l , r e l i g i o s i t y , number of s i b l i n g s , and self-esteem. Wilk's Lambda on a l l of the variables combined indicated a si g n i f i c a n t difference between the three intention groups at a p_<.005 l e v e l of si g n i f i c a n c e (see table 3). Table 2 Crosstabulation of Parenting Intentions by Relationship Status. RELATIONSHIP STATUS INTENT COUNT EXP VAL Single |Involved|Steady 3 ROW TOTAL Childfree* 18 8 8 34 14.7 8.0 11.3 33.3% Probably 13 10 11 — • • 34 Yes . 14.7 8.0 11.3 33.3% D e f i n i t e l y 13 6 15 • 34 Yes i 14.7 8.0 i 11.3 33.3% COLUMN 44 24 1 34 r 102 TOTAL 43.1% 23.5% 33.3% 100.0% CHI-SQUARE D.F. SIGNIFICANCE 4.31283 4 0.3653 a In a steady r e l a t i o n s h i p or engaged. MIN E.F. 8.000 * Childfree: D e f i n i t e l y No Children N = 10 Probably No Children N = 24 99 Table 3 Manova of Parenting Intentions Groups on a l l Continuous Variables (Education, Occupation, R e l i g i o s i t y / S i b l i n g s , and Self Esteem). Multivariate Tests of Significance (S = 2, M = 1 , N = 46 ) Test Name Value F 3- DF^- Error DF Sig. of F P i l l a i s .25436 2.76854 10.00 190.00 .003* Hotellings.29369 2.73128 10.00 186.00 .004* Wilks c .76106 2.75002 10.00 188.00 .003* a Approximate F b Hypothetical Degrees of Freedom c F s t a t i s t i c f o r WILK'S Lambda i s exact. *p_£ .005 100 The MANOVA was followed with protected univariate F_ tests to examine differences between the three parenting intentions groups and each continuous variable (see table 4). R e l i g i o s i t y was found to be s i g n i f i c a n t (p_ = .018) in d i f f e r e n t i a t i n g between the groups based on parenting intentions. None of the other variables were found to s i g n i f i c a n t l y d i f f e r e n t i a t e the groups, although self-esteem (p_ = .057), number of s i b l i n g s (p_=.061) and occupational aspirations (p_ = .070) approached sign i f i c a n c e . On the basis of these r e s u l t s hypothesis two, proposing that " c h i l d f r e e " p articipants would have s i g n i f i c a n t l y fewer si b l i n g s i n t h e i r families of o r i g i n than "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women, was rejected. Hypothesis six, proposing that " c h i l d f r e e " women would have s i g n i f i c a n t l y higher educational aspirations than "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women was also rejected. Hypothesis seven, proposing that " c h i l d f r e e " women would score s i g n i f i c a n t l y higher on the socioeconomic status of t h e i r occupational aspirations than "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women, was rejected. Hypothesis nine, proposing that the "ch i l d f r e e " participants would have higher self-esteem scores than the "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" participants, was also rejected. For a l l four of the above hypotheses the n u l l hypotheses were accepted. 101 Table 4 Protected Univariate F-tests of Parenting Intentions With A l l Continuous Var iables. Variable Hypoth. MS Error MS F Siq. of F EDUCATION .33460 .22958 1. .45744 .238 OCCUPATION 670 .13251 245 .53069 2. .72932 .070 RELIGIOSITY 1 .60809 .38605 4. .16544 .018* SIBLINGS 3 .54703 1 .23515 2. .87174 .061 SELF-ESTEEM 105 .5093 35 .72976 2, .95298 .057 Univariate F-tests with (2,98) D. F. 102 A Tukey procedure was used in order to further understand the differences between the three intention groups on the R e l i g i o s i t y variable. With a possible low score of 1 (very religious) and a possible high score of 3 (not at a l l r e l i g i o u s ) , the " c h i l d f r e e " group scored a mean of 2 . 7 . Both the " d e f i n i t e l y yes" group, with a mean of 2 . 3 and the "probably yes" group, also with a mean of 2 . 3 , were s i g n i f i c a n t l y d i f f e r e n t from the "ch i l d f r e e " groups at a p_ 5 . 0 5 l e v e l of si g n i f i c a n c e . On the basis of thi s analysis hypothesis four, proposing that the "chi l d f r e e " group would be s i g n i f i c a n t l y less r e l i g i o u s than the "probably yes" and the " d e f i n i t e l y yes" groups, was accepted and the n u l l hypothesis rejected. An examination of the means of the self-esteem scores, the number of s i b l i n g s , and the occupation scores of the intent groups provides some understanding of how differences between the groups approached significance (see Appendix I ) . The self-esteem scores ranged from a possible low score of 1 0 to a possible high score of 4 0 . The "ch i l d f r e e " group had the lowest self-esteem scores with a mean of 2 9 . 6 and a standard deviation of 7 . 3 . The "probably yes" group had a mean score of 3 2 . 3 and a standard deviation of 4 . 5 . The " d e f i n i t e l y yes" group had the highest mean score, 3 2 . 9 , with a standard deviation of 5 . 6 . Although the findings were not s i g n i f i c a n t , the self-esteem scores approached significance i n the opposite d i r e c t i o n predicted by 103 h y p o t h e s i s n i n e , w h i c h p r o p o s e d t h a t t h e " c h i l d f r e e " g r o u p w o u l d h a v e a s i g n i f i c a n t l y h i g h e r m e a n s c o r e t h a n t h e o t h e r t w o p a r e n t i n g i n t e n t i o n s g r o u p s . A n e x a m i n a t i o n o f t h e m e a n n u m b e r o f s i b l i n g s a n d t h e m e a n o c c u p a t i o n s c o r e s o f t h e t h r e e g r o u p s i n d i c a t e s t h a t t h e v a r i a b l e s a p p r o a c h e d s i g n i f i c a n c e i n a m a n n e r t h a t w a s n o t r e l e v a n t t o t h e r e s e a r c h q u e s t i o n . T h e " p r o b a b l y y e s " g r o u p h a d a h i g h e r m e a n n u m b e r o f s i b l i n g s t h a n b o t h t h e " c h i l d f r e e " a n d t h e " d e f i n i t e l y y e s " g r o u p s . S i m i l a r l y , o n t h e o c c u p a t i o n v a r i a b l e , t h e " c h i l d f r e e " g r o u p ' s m e a n s c o r e f e l l b e t w e e n t h e " d e f i n i t e l y y e s " a n d " p r o b a b l y y e s " g r o u p s . C h i - s q u a r e a n a l y s e s w e r e u s e d t o t e s t t h e h y p o t h e s e s p r e d i c t i n g a s s o c i a t i o n s b e t w e e n t h e i n t e n t g r o u p s a n d t h e c a t e g o r i c a l v a r i a b l e s o f b i r t h o r d e r , t y p e o f r e l i g i o n , e t h n i c i t y , o c c u p a t i o n g e n d e r , g e n d e r - r o l e i d e n t i t y , a n d k n o w i n g a c h i l d f r e e w o m a n . G o o d m a n - K r u s k a l ' s l a m b d a s w e r e u s e d t o f u r t h e r t e s t f o r t h e s t r e n g t h a n d t h e d i r e c t i o n o f t h e a s s o c i a t i o n s f o u n d . A s i g n i f i c a n t c h i - s q u a r e w a s n o t f o u n d f o r b i r t h o r d e r ( s e e t a b l e 5 ) . A n a s s o c i a t i o n w a s n o t f o u n d b e t w e e n p a r e n t i n g i n t e n t i o n s a n d b i r t h o r d e r , t h e r e f o r e h y p o t h e s i s o n e w a s r e j e c t e d a n d t h e n u l l h y p o t h e s i s a c c e p t e d . A s i g n i f i c a n t c h i - s q u a r e (p_ 4 . 0 5 ) w a s f o u n d f o r i n t e n t b y r e l i g i o u s c a t e g o r y , i n d i c a t i n g a s i g n i f i c a n t p r o b a b i l i t y o f a n a s s o c i a t i o n b e t w e e n p a r e n t i n g i n t e n t i o n s a n d t y p e o f r e l i g i o n ( s e e t a b l e 6 ) . T h e " d e f i n i t e l y y e s " w o m e n f e l l Table 5 Crosstabulation of Parenting Intentions by Birth Order. BIRTH ORDER COUNT EXPECTED VAL Eldest | Middle |Youngest| Only INTENT + + + + + Childfree* Probably Yes D e f i n i t e l y Yes COLUMN TOTAL 14 13.3 7 7.3 13 12.3 0 1.0 14 13.3 6 7.3 13 12.3 1 1.0 12 13.3 9 7.3 11 12.3 2 1.0 40 22 37 3 ROW TOTAL 34 33.3% 34 33.3% 34 33.3% 39.2% 21.6% 36.3% 102 2.9% 100.0% CHI-SQUARE D.F. 3.05258 6 SIGNIFICANCE 0.8022 * Childfree: D e f i n i t e l y No Children N = 10 Probably No Children N = 24 MIN EXPECTED 1.000 105 into the "protestant" category at a higher than expected frequency (35 percent) and " c h i l d f r e e " women f e l l into the "none" category at a higher than expected frequency (56 percent). An additi o n a l source of the association appears to be the frequency with which "probably yes" women f e l l into the "other" r e l i g i o u s category (26 percent). Because the association arose from sources congruent with those hypothesized, that i s " c h i l d f r e e " women were less l i k e l y to be a f f i l i a t e d with a p a r t i c u l a r r e l i g i o n than the other groups, hypothesis three was accepted and the n u l l hypothesis was rejected. The Goodman-Kruskal1s lambda s t a t i s t i c indicated a 22 percent reduction i n error with parenting intentions dependent, and no reduction i n error with r e l i g i o n dependent, ind i c a t i n g that r e l i g i o n i s the more important component i n the dependency. A s i g n i f i c a n t chi-square was not found to exist between the parenting intentions variable and the variable of ethn i c i t y (see table 7). Hypothesis f i v e , proposing that "c h i l d f r e e " women would less frequently have v i s i b l e minority ethnic o r i g i n s than "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women, was rejected and the n u l l hypothesis accepted. 106 Table 6 Crosstabulation of Parenting Intentions by Religious Category. RELIGIOUS CATEGORY COUNT EXPECTED VAL. ROW TOTAL INTENT Catholic|Protest.| None | Other + + + Childfree* 8 7.3 5 7.7 19 13.7 Probably Yes D e f i n i t e l y Yes 9 7.3 6 7.7 10 13.7 5 7.3 12 7.7 12 13.7 COLUMN 22 23 41 TOTAL 21.6% 22.5% 40.2% CHI-SQUARE D.F. SIGNIFICANCE 12.81424 6 0.0461 * Childfree: D e f i n i t e l y No Children N = 10 Probably No Children N = 24 2 34 5.3 33.3 + 9 34 5.3 33.3% 5 34 5.3 J 33.3% 16 102 15.7% 100.0% MIN EXPECTED 5.333 107 Table 7 Crosstabulation of Parenting Intentions by Ethnic/Cultural Background. ETHNICITY INTENT COUNT EXPECTED VAL Childfree* Probably Yes D e f i n i t e l y Yes COLUMN TOTAL Majority Minority Culture Culture 30 29.0 28 29.0 29 29.0 87 85.3% 4 5.0 6 5.0 5 5.0 15 14.7% ROW TOTAL 34 33.3% 34 33.3% 34 33.3% 102 100.0% CHI-SQUARE D.F. 0.46897 2 SIGNIFICANCE 0.7910 MIN. EXPECTED 5.000 * Childfree: D e f i n i t e l y No Children N = 10 Probably No Children N = 24 108 A s i g n i f i c a n t chi-square (p £ .005) indicated a s i g n i f i c a n t p r o b a b i l i t y of an association between parenting intentions and gender dominance of occupational choice (see table 8) . The entire population sample was di s t r i b u t e d such that 66 percent of the respondents aspired to male dominated occupations and 34 percent aspired to female occupations. "Probably yes" women largely conformed to the expected frequencies, with 65 percent aspiring to male dominated occupations and 35 percent to female dominated occupations. The association between parenting intentions and occupation gender appeared to be accounted for by a contrast between the occupational aspirations of " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women and "ch i l d f r e e " women. Forty-seven percent of the " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women, a lower than expected frequency, aspired to male dominated occupations, and a higher than expected frequency, 53 percent, aspired to female dominated occupations. "Childfree" women on the other hand were nearly six times as l i k e l y to aspire to a male dominated occupation (85 percent) than to a female dominated one (15 percent). This finding conforms to the proposal in hypothesis eight that " c h i l d f r e e " women would aspire to occupations that are male dominated more often than "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women. Goodman-Kruskal's lambda indicated a 19 percent proportional reduction i n error with parenting intentions dependent, and only a 5 percent reduction in error with gender of occupation dependent, indicating that occupation 109 Table 8 Crosstabulation of Parenting Intentions by Gender Dominance of Occupational Aspirations. GENDER OF OCCUPATION COUNT EXPECTED VAL. INTENT CHI-SQUARE 11 .04818 ROW TOTAL Male I Female | Childfree* 29 22.3 5 11.7 Probably Yes 22 22.3 12 11.7 D e f i n i t e l y Yes 18 11.7 16 22.3 COLUMN 67 35 TOTAL 65.7% 34.3% 34 33.3% 34 33.3% 34 33.3% 102 100.0% D.F. 2 SIGNIFICANCE 0.0040 MIN EXPECTED 11.667 * Ch i l d f r e e : D e f i n i t e l y No Children N = 10 Probably No Children N = 24 110 helps to predict intent more than intent helps to predict occupation choice. The lambda of .191 was the lowest reduction of error found for the four s i g n i f i c a n t categorical variables, indicating that t h i s association was the weakest of the four. A s i g n i f i c a n t chi square (p_ £ .0001) indicated a si g n i f i c a n t p r o b a b i l i t y that there was an association between parenting intentions and gender-role i d e n t i t y . The association between the two variables seems to be attributable to several p r i n c i p a l sources (see table 9). As hypothesized, " c h i l d f r e e " women f e l l into the "Feminine" category of the BSRI less often (only 15 percent) than the other two parenting intentions groups. The "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women f e l l into the "Feminine" category of the BSRI at higher frequencies, with 41 percent of the "probably yes" group and 44 percent of the " d e f i n i t e l y yes" group having feminine gender-role i d e n t i t i e s . The association between gender-role i d e n t i t y and parenting intentions also seems to be attri b u t a b l e to differences in the frequency with which parti c i p a n t s scored i n the "Masculine" gender-role category. As hypothesized, "c h i l d f r e e " women f e l l into the "Masculine" category with a much higher frequency (53 percent) than the other two parenting intentions groups. "Probably yes" women scored i n the "Masculine" category at an approximately expected frequency (23 percent), and the " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women f e l l into the I l l Table 9 Crosstabulation of Parenting Intentions by Gender-role i d e n t i t y . GENDER-ROLE IDENTITY COUNT EXPECTED VAL INTENT Undiff.| Masc. | Fem. | Androg. ROW Childfree* Probably Yes D e f i n i t e l y Yes COLUMN TOTAL 8 5.0 18 10.0 5 5.0 8 10.0 | 5.0 +. 15 14.7% 4 10.0 5 11.3 3 7.7 14 11.3 15 11.3 7 7.7 13 7.7 TOTAL 34 33.3% 34 33.3% 34 33.3% 30 34 23 102 29.4% 33.3% 22.5% 100.0% CHI-SQUARE D.F. 25.96163 6 SIGNIFICANCE 0.0002 MIN EXPECTED 5.000 * Childfree: D e f i n i t e l y No Children N = 10 Probably No Children N = 24 112 "Masculine" category with a very low frequency (12 percent). Contrary to the proposal i n hypothesis ten that " c h i l d f r e e " women would be more l i k e l y to be androgynous than the other two groups, " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women were found to be androgynous at a higher frequency (38 percent) than either the "probably yes" group (21 percent), or the " c h i l d f r e e " group which was unexpectedly found to have only 9 percent in the "Androgynous" category. Although an association was found to exis t between parenting intentions and the variable of gender-role i d e n t i t y the source of the association was not e n t i r e l y as predicted. Hypothesis ten proposed that "ch i l d f r e e " women would more often have masculine or androgynous gender-role i d e n t i t i e s , and "probably yes" and d e f i n i t e l y yes" women would more often have feminine gender-role i d e n t i t i e s . Although hypothesis ten was supported by the finding that " c h i l d f r e e " women more frequently had masculine gender-role i d e n t i t i e s and "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women more frequently had feminine gender-i d e n t i t i e s , the hypothesis was not supported by the finding that " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women more frequently scored i n the "Androgynous" category than the "ch i l d f r e e " women. On the basis of these findings, hypothesis ten was rejected, but the n u l l hypothesis was not accepted. Goodman-Kruskal1s lambda indicated a 29 percent reduction i n error with parenting intention dependent and a 19 percent reduction i n error with gender-role i d e n t i t y 113 dependent. The lambda of .294 was the highest reduction in error found, suggesting that the association between gender-role i d e n t i t y and parenting intentions was the strongest of a l l the categorical variables. A chi square analysis of the variables parenting intentions and knowing a v o l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e woman was not found to be s i g n i f i c a n t , i n d i c a t i n g that there was not an association between these two variables (see table 10) . On the basis of t h i s finding, hypothesis eleven, proposing that the " c h i l d f r e e " women would more frequently know a vol u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e woman than the "probably yes" and the " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women, was rejected and the n u l l hypothesis accepted. 114 Table 10 Crosstabulation of Parenting Intentions by Knowing a Voluntaril y Childfree Woman. KNOW CHILDFREE WOMAN COUNT EXPECTED VAL INTENT CHI SQUARE 0.51126 Do Know|Don't Know Childfree* Probably Yes D e f i n i t e l y Yes I 11 11.4 23 22.6 10 11.1 23 21.9 13 11.4 21 22.6 ROW TOTAL 34 33.7% 33 32.7% 34 33.7% 34 67 COLUMN 67 101 TOTAL 33.7% 66.3% 100.0% D.F. SIGNIFICANCE MIN EXPECTED 2 0.7744 11.109 Childfree: D e f i n i t e l y No Children N = 10 Probably No Children N = 24 115 Conclusion In conclusion, the s t a t i s t i c a l analyses indicate an association between parenting intentions and several of the variables examined. A s i g n i f i c a n t difference was found to distinguish the mean r e l i g i o s i t y scores of the respondents based on t h e i r parenting intentions, with the "ch i l d f r e e " respondents scoring s i g n i f i c a n t l y lower in r e l i g i o s i t y than both the "probably yes" and the " d e f i n i t e l y yes" respondents. S i m i l a r l y , the association found between the type of r e l i g i o n practiced and parenting intentions may be accounted for by " c h i l d f r e e " respondents categorizing themselves more frequently as having no r e l i g i o n than "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" respondents. An association was found between parenting intentions and choice of a female or male dominated occupation, with " c h i l d f r e e " women more frequently choosing male dominated occupations and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women more frequently choosing female dominated occupations. Although an association was found between parenting intentions and gender-role i d e n t i t y only part of the association was as hypothesized. "Childfree" women were more frequently c l a s s i f i e d as having masculine gender-role i d e n t i t i e s than the other groups, however contrary to expectations, " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women f e l l into the "Androgynous" category with greater frequency than " c h i l d f r e e " women who scored in the "Androgynous" category at a low frequency. Religion and 116 r e l i g i o s i t y , gender predominance of occupational aspirations, and gender-role i d e n t i t y were the variables found to be associated with parenting intentions. 117 CHAPTER FIVE Discussion This chapter includes a restatement of the purpose of the research, and a summary and discussion of the r e s u l t s . The findings are discussed i n view of applications for coun-s e l l i n g women i n reproductive decision-making. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications for further research. Restatement of the Purpose Today the opportunities for women are more diverse than at any time i n the past and women can create l i f e s t y l e s t a i -lored to t h e i r i n d i v i d u a l needs, interests and values, of-fering more opportunities for well-being (Baruch et a l . , 1983). Motherhood has largely become a matter of choice and the decision of whether or not to have children i s an issue many women of childbearing age today face. The demands and rewards of the profuse number of roles available impose the need for women to make informed decisions; t h e i r decision may be aided by knowledge about other women who are making similar choices. L i t t l e research has been conducted examining the inde-pendent parenthood intentions of young, single women, some 118 of whom may choose to marry only i f they want to have c h i l -dren. Research on parenthood decision-making can be en-hanced by information about the ch a r a c t e r i s t i c s which serve to d i s t i n g u i s h these women based on their parenting inten-tions. Retrospective i n q u i r i e s are limited because i n d i v i d -uals tend to develop reasons for th e i r choice r e t r o a c t i v e l y to support t h e i r decisions (Faux, 1984; Veevers, 1980). Differences between women may arise from the consequences of a chosen l i f e s t y l e rather than the o r i g i n a l c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s that led them to make t h e i r reproductive choices. A search for what i n c l i n e s individuals towards one re-productive preference or another yields such nebulous con-cepts as love, fun and freedom (Burgwyn, 1981; Veevers, 1980) . Very l i t t l e i s known about the s p e c i f i c elements of the childbearing decision: i n s u f f i c i e n t baseline data exists to guide parenthood decision-making (Wilk, 1986). Motherhood i s a great r e s p o n s i b i l i t y and the choice, once, made i s i r r e v e r s i b l e . Women today who are faced with the d i f f i c u l t decision of whether or not to bear children need concrete information i n order to make an informed choice which i s l i k e l y to provide the greatest degree of personal s a t i s f a c t i o n . By examining the broader s o c i a l , s i t u a t i o n a l , and intrapsychic contexts out of which parenthood intentions emerge, a deeper understanding of reproductive behavior and experience might be achieved. To understand f e r t i l i t y related behavior, knowledge i s required regarding the so c i a l , s i t u a t i o n a l , and intrapsychic variables associated 119 with reproductive intentions. Ultimately, research on parenting intentions may offer a key to understanding and resolving the decision that many women confront: whether or not they want to be mothers. Summary and Discussion of Results An examination of the ch a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the sample i n -dicated that the three parenting intentions groups, "c h i l d f r e e " , "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes", did not s i g n i f i c a n t l y d i f f e r i n age or how much thought they had given to how many children they wanted. The parenting i n -tentions groups did s i g n i f i c a n t l y d i f f e r based on t h e i r mar-riage intentions. Women who d e f i n i t e l y intended to have children also intended to marry. In contrast, women who did not intend to have children were more frequently unsure of their marriage plans, or i n some cases did not intend to marry. Women who intended to probably have children f e l l between these two extremes. This finding indicates an asso-c i a t i o n between an intention to reproduce and an intention to marry. Further research i s needed to f u l l y understand t h i s connection, however one l o g i c a l explanation would be a desire for l e g i t i m i z a t i o n of children through marriage. Despite the differences among the parenting intentions groups regarding marriage intentions, an association was not found to exis t between present relationship status and par-enting intentions. This may indicate that women who intend to remain c h i l d f r e e are no less l i k e l y to be involved i n a 120 r e l a t i o n s h i p , but that possibly they r e j e c t the t r a d i t i o n a l i n s t i t u t i o n of marriage. S o c i a l i z a t i o n factors. Hypothesis one, proposing that " c h i l d f r e e " women would be more often f i r s t or l a s t born than "probably yes" or " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women was not substantiated. In fact, the three groups exhibited very similar d i s t r i b u t i o n s of b i r t h order, with almost i d e n t i c a l numbers f a l l i n g into f i r s t , middle, l a s t , or only c h i l d categories. This finding con-t r a s t s with Veevers' (1980) and Ory's (1978) findings and i s consistent with Toomey's (1977) finding. The discrepancy among findings may be because of the nature of the subjects. Veevers' and Ory's subjects were individuals who had experi-enced l i v i n g with t h e i r parenting choices, whereas the pre-sent study and Toomey's study consisted exclusively of' subjects who were a r t i c u l a t i n g t h e i r parenting intentions early. Perhaps b i r t h order has a d i f f e r e n t association to f e r t i l i t y behavior depending on whether the decision was reached through a series of postponements or through early a r t i c u l a t i o n . A l t e r n a t i v e l y , the discrepancy among findings could be related to the fact that b i r t h order i s mitigated by other factors such as an individual's perceptions and experiences of her position i n the family. Hypothesis two, proposing that " c h i l d f r e e " subjects would come from s i g n i f i c a n t l y smaller families of o r i g i n than "probably yes" or " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women, was rejected. Hendershot's (1969) proposal that norms acquired in families 121 of o r i g i n influence individual's family planning decisions, causing them to recapitulate similar demographic structures, was not substantiated by the present research. The non-sig-n i f i c a n t findings of the present study may have been related to the homogeneous c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the sample. The mean number of s i b l i n g s of the respondents was 1.8, and 91 per-cent of the sample had three or fewer s i b l i n g s . A more het-erogeneous sample in terms of size of family of o r i g i n may be needed to f u l l y understand the connection between family of o r i g i n size and parenting intentions. These findings suggest that, contrary to what Campbell (1985), Gerson (1985) and Veevers (1980) have proposed, so-c i a l i z a t i o n experience i n women's families of o r i g i n i n terms of b i r t h order and family size do not appear to inform t h e i r reproductive behavior. Possibly the contribution these factors may make to parenting intentions are mitigated by intervening variables such as child-care r e s p o n s i b i l i t y or i n d i v i d u a l perceptions of family l i f e . These r e s u l t s must be interpreted with caution due to the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the sample and the preliminary nature of the research. Possibly a more diverse sample would reveal women from larger families exhibiting d i f f e r e n t f e r t i l i t y intentions than those from smaller f a m i l i e s . In depth interviews may begin to y i e l d more s p e c i f i c information about how family of o r i g i n experiences influence parenting intentions. Hypothesis three, proposing that an association exists between type of r e l i g i o u s a f f i l i a t i o n and parenting inten-122 tions, was substantiated by the research. As hypothesized, "c h i l d f r e e " women more frequently f e l l into the "none" cate-gory, whereas "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women were more frequently a f f i l i a t e d with a r e l i g i o n . No p a r t i c u l a r r e l i g i o n was found to be associated with intent; the association arose from Catholic, Protestant, and the "other" category uniformly being associated with "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" respondents, suggesting that a f f i l i a t i o n with any r e l i g i o n may have an impact on parenting inten-tions . In addition, hypothesis four proposing that the "chi l d f r e e " group would score s i g n i f i c a n t l y lower i n r e l i -g i o s i t y than the " d e f i n i t e l y yes" and "probably yes" groups was accepted. The s i g n i f i c a n t association between parenting intentions and r e l i g i o n p a r a l l e l s the findings of many pre-vious researchers (Ory, 1978; Ramu, 1986; Toomey, 1977; Veevers, 1980). The findings of the present research sug-gests that the parenting intentions of the present cohort of young women are s t i l l influenced by r e l i g i o u s a f f i l i a t i o n s . These re s u l t s substantiate the claim by Burgwyn (1981), Campbell (1985) and Veevers (1980) that pronatalist tenets embedded i n r e l i g i o u s doctrines influence reproductive i n -tentions and behaviors. F e r t i l i t y related values appear to be conveyed through r e l i g i o u s a f f i l i a t i o n s , a f f e c t i n g the parenting intentions i n the present cohort of young women. Hypothesis f i v e , postulating an association between ethnic background and parenting intentions such that " c h i l d f r e e " respondents are less frequently members of a v i s i b l e minority group than "probably yes" or " d e f i n i t e l y yes" respondents, was rejected. Ethnic background was not found to be associated with parenting intentions. This finding i s contrary to the re s u l t s of research by Hoffman and Manis (1979) and Fox et a l . (1982). One possible expla nation for t h i s discrepancy may be because the present research focused e x c l u s i v e l y on zero parity; low par i t y i s very d i s t i n c t from zero p a r i t y . Because most of the previous research on reproductive choice which included voluntary childlessness focused almost exclusively on women from majority culture backgrounds (Beckman, 1977; Gerson, 1980,1986; Ramu, 1985; Thoen, 1977; Veevers, 1980) th i s finding provides a preliminary understanding of the relationship between ethnic o r i g i n and parenting intentions The present research presents a precursory indica t i o n that s o c i a l i z a t i o n i n a v i s i b l e minority culture, with i t s attendant reproductive values, does not have a d i f f e r e n t i a l e f f e c t on parenting intentions than s o c i a l i z a t i o n i n the majority culture. Conceivably the s o c i a l i z a t i o n process i s quite d i f f e r e n t but ethnic 'origin i s mediated by other factors. A l i m i t a t i o n of t h i s research finding i s that the researcher did not d i s t i n g u i s h between f i r s t , second, or t h i r d generation descendents. Possibly young women who are born and raised within the majority culture are less influenced by t h e i r c u l t u r a l origins than women who immi-124 grate. Further research i s needed to more f u l l y understand the relationship between e t h n i c i t y and reproductive intentions. The majority of respondents were not acquainted with a voluntarily c h i l d f r e e woman no longer capable of having a ch i l d . Thirty-four percent did know a childfree woman, while 66 percent did not. This i s probably a r e f l e c t i o n of the r e l a t i v e infrequency of voluntary childlessness i n the population and also because the population sample was from a much younger cohort than women past t h e i r childbearing years. S t a t i s t i c a l analysis showed that there was no asso-cia t i o n between parenting intentions and knowing a c h i l d f r e e woman. Hypothesis eleven was rejected and the n u l l hypothe-sis accepted. These preliminary findings would seem to i n -dicate that having a c h i l d f r e e r o l e model i s not associated with an intention to remain c h i l d f r e e . In contrast, Houseknecht's (1978) findings showed that intending to re-main c h i l d f r e e does appear to be associated with reference group support, however she did not indicate that women who intended to parent lacked such s o c i a l contact. It i s con-ceivable that i n both studies having a role model had some impact on the intention to be ch i l d f r e e , but that women who intended to parent had experienced similar contacts without the same impact. A shortcoming of the present research i s that the re l a t i o n s h i p between the older childfree women and the respondents was not determined. Important d i s t i n c t i o n s may have been obscured by lack of information about whether 125 the older women were i n fact seen as role models by respon-dents, or whether they were perceived as unsatisfied with t h e i r c h i l d f r e e status. The research findings suggest that r e l i g i o u s a f f i l i a -t i o n i s the only s o c i a l i z a t i o n factor d i r e c t l y associated with parenting intentions. The form and nature of family l i f e i n terms of b i r t h order and number of si b l i n g s did not appear to influence the parenting intentions of the present cohort of young un i v e r s i t y women. Similarly, majority and minority c u l t u r a l backgrounds did not serve to dis t i n g u i s h between these women based on the i r parenting intentions, nor did reference group support in terms of knowing a c h i l d f r e e woman. The present research findings support the proposal of Fox et a l . (1982) that association with and p a r t i c i p a t i o n in a r e l i g i o u s community involves a person in a s o c i a l con-text i n which s p e c i f i c f e r t i l i t y values and orientations may be a r t i c u l a t e d , with a resultant impact on reproductive i n -tentions . Situational f a c t o r s . Hypothesis six, proposing that "childfree" women would be s i g n i f i c a n t l y more l i k e l y to intend to complete higher educational degrees than "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women, was rejected. No s i g n i f i c a n t difference was found between the mean l e v e l s of educational aspirations for the three parenting intentions groups. These results are i n contrast, to research which has indicated that c h i l d f r e e women are more highly educated than the general population 126 (Bram., 1984; Houseknecht, 1978; Ramu,1985; Veevers, 1980). The discrepancy between the present research findings and those c i t e d may be because the present subjects were being compared at an e a r l i e r stage in the l i f e cycle. As Ramu (1985) has proposed, for the child f r e e a commitment to c h i l -dren may be replaced over time by a commitment to educa-t i o n a l advancement. Educational aspirations may not be a factor i n the i n i t i a l stages of reproductive decision-making, but instead become s i g n i f i c a n t later as women postpone t h e i r childbearing. These findings must be interpreted i n view of the select nature of the sample. None of the respondents aspired to less than a Bachelors degree and only 35 percent aspired to less than a Master's degree. No s i g n i f i c a n t difference was found between the mean occupational aspirations scores of the three parenting i n -tentions groups. Hypothesis seven was rejected and the n u l l hypothesis accepted. The contrast between these findings and research which indicates that childfree women are more often involved in highly s k i l l e d and professional careers than women who are parents (Bram, 1984; Veevers, 1980) may be because reproductive intentions and occupational aspira-tions are being compared at an e a r l i e r stage i n the l i f e cy-cl e . This may indicate that differences in occupational at-tainment between c h i l d f r e e women and women who are parents may be a r e s u l t of circumstances rather than an i n i t i a l preference. Perhaps women who forgo childrearing a t t a i n 127 higher occupational attainments because they are free from childcare r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s (Ramu, 1985;Veevers, 1980). Al t e r n a t i v e l y , the present research findings may sup-port the proposal by Barnett and MacDonald (1986) that chil d f r e e i n d i v i d u a l s do not make occupational choices based on opportunities for prestige and money. Again the findings must be interpreted with caution because of the nature of the sample. Most of the respondents aspired to professional or managerial occupations which score highly i n the TSEI2 index. In addition, the women who intended to have children on average planned to l i m i t the number of children they would have to 2, and to bear t h e i r children around age 27, possibly with the intention of allowing themselves greater freedom to pursue a career. Hypothesis eight, proposing that an association would exist between parenting intentions and whether occupational aspirations were female or male dominated, was accepted. While "probably yes" women's occupational choices were male or female dominated at expected frequencies, " c h i l d f r e e " women aspired to male dominated occupations at higher than expected frequencies, and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women aspired to female dominated occupations at higher than expected f r e -quencies. These findings are i n contrast to Campbell's (1985) findings that c h i l d f r e e women interviewed were s a t i s -f i e d staying i n t r a d i t i o n a l l y feminine occupations. The findings i n the present research support the proposal by Faux (1984) that women who hope to become mothers gravitate 128 towards t r a d i t i o n a l l y feminine occupations. Further re-search i s needed to determine whether the career aspirations of these women are, as suggested by Faux, influenced by a compatibility with t h e i r parenting intentions. Possibly some women who intend to parent a c t i v e l y make th e i r career choices based on how well the work accommodates motherhood. Another possible explanation for the findings i s that women who intend to parent value t r a d i t i o n a l female roles more than women who intend to remain c h i l d f r e e . The r e s u l t s appear to indicate that women who do not intend to become parents gravitate towards male dominated occupations. Perhaps the parenting intentions of these young women are, as Burgwyn (1981) suggests, related to the career advantages available to them, such as working irregu-l a r hours and taking on extra r e s p o n s i b i l i t y and tr a i n i n g free from the r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s of c h i l d care. Perhaps the difference between the parenting intentions groups i s not so much a r e f l e c t i o n of a costs-benefits decision-making pro-cess as a r e f l e c t i o n of d i f f e r e n t values, with " c h i l d f r e e " women re j e c t i n g t r a d i t i o n a l l y feminine occupations i n pref-erence for non-traditional, male dominated careers. The question arises as to why "c h i l d f r e e " women were more l i k e l y to aspire to a male dominated occupation and yet scored no higher on the TSEI2 index than the women who intended to have children. Male dominated occupations on the whole tend to score higher on a socioeconomic and prestige index than female dominated occupations. One 129 explanation for why th i s fact i s not re f l e c t e d in the research findings i s that " c h i l d f r e e " women were not distinguishable from other women because they chose male dominated careers such as law and medicine but because they chose careers as writers, a r t i s t s , and entertainers (see Appendix C). Perhaps c h i l d f r e e women more frequently make non- t r a d i t i o n a l l y female career choices but, as Barnett and MacDonald (1986) suggest, they are not doing so because they value work which offers prestige or high wages. The research findings indicate that the f e r t i l i t y i n -tentions of young university women are associated with occu-pation plans i n terms of aspiring to a male or female domi-nated occupation. The findings may be a r e f l e c t i o n s of a costs-benefits decision-making process such as a decision to choose t r a d i t i o n a l l y feminine occupations that more e a s i l y accommodate children. Perhaps the findings are an expres-sion of a valuation of occupations which involve t r a d i t i o n a l l y feminine a c t i v i t i e s l i k e care giving, such as teaching (see Appendix A). Women who intend to remain c h i l d f r e e , while more frequently aspiring to male dominated occupations, do not aspire to careers with higher socioeconomic status than women who intend to have children. Possibly c h i l d f r e e women's f e r t i l i t y choices express a valuation of career aspirations that focus on independence and autonomy more than status. 130 Identity factors. No s i g n i f i c a n t difference was found between the three parenting intentions groups on t h e i r self-esteem scores. Hypothesis nine, proposing that " c h i l d f r e e " participants would have higher self-esteem than "probably yes" and " d e f i n i t e l y yes" participants was rejected. Although no as-sociation between self-esteem and parenting intentions was found, the re s u l t s of the analysis showed that differences between the mean self-esteem scores approached significance in the opposite d i r e c t i o n to that proposed i n the hypothe-s i s . The mean self-esteem scores were lower for the "chil d f r e e " group than for the "probably yes" and d e f i n i t e l y yes" groups. The findings of the present research support the re-search findings of Feldman (1981) that no s i g n i f i c a n t d i f -ferences ex i s t i n s e l f esteem between women with d i f f e r i n g parenting choices. The present research findings contrast with the findings of Burman and de Anda (1986), Gerson (1986) and Veevers (1980), which report that c h i l d f r e e women have higher self-esteem than women who choose to have c h i l -dren. Possibly differences in findings may be because ear-l i e r studies were conducted on older women who had experi-enced l i v i n g with t h e i r parenting choices. Perhaps d i f f e r -ences i n self-esteem emerge at l a t e r stages of l i f e out of the consequences of l i v i n g with a chosen l i f e - s t y l e . Although differences i n mean self-esteem scores did not reach significance, the question of why the scores ap-131 proached significance i n the opposite d i r e c t i o n to that hy-pothesized merits enquiry. One possible explanation for why a lower mean score was found for the "ch i l d f r e e " group may be that some women's low self-esteem may af f e c t t h e i r par-enting intentions, perhaps by making them f e e l incapable or unworthy of assuming the rol e of a parent. An alternative explanation for why "c h i l d f r e e " subjects had lower self-esteem scores may be, as Baruch et a l . (1983) suggest, that stepping outside of s o c i a l l y prescribed roles can r e s u l t i n lowered self-esteem. Young women intending to forgo parenthood may see themselves as inadequately l i v i n g up to t h e i r prescribed r o l e i n the eyes of others. Lowered self-esteem may therefore r e s u l t because an individual's conception of herself i s p a r t i a l l y determined by other peo-ple's reactions to her; the development of a sense of se l f always involves other people (Cooley, 1902; Wells, 1976) . Self-evaluation emerges within a s o c i a l frame of reference ( Z i l l e r , 1969) and women who intend to remain ch i l d f r e e do so within a pro n a t a l i s t society which values the motherhood r o l e . This explanation i s limited by the fac t that these young women are un l i k e l y to have yet f e l t a great deal of di r e c t s o c i a l disapproval for t h e i r parenting intentions. This kind of connection between parenting intentions and self-esteem would be a subtle and in d i r e c t one and rather d i f f i c u l t to ascertain. Further research i s needed to explore whether self-esteem i s consistently and r e l i a b l y a factor associated with the parenting intentions of young 132 college women, and i f such a connection i s found to exist, research i s needed to attempt to understand the r e l a t i o n s h i p between self-esteem and parenting intentions. The findings must be viewed with the understanding that the self-esteem scores of the respondents were in general high, with an average score of 31.6 out of a possible low score of 10 and a high score of 40. The parenting inten-tions group with the lowest mean self-esteem had an average score of 29.6, i n d i c a t i n g that the self-esteem of the "ch i l d f r e e " group was on the whole quite p o s i t i v e . It has been suggested in the l i t e r a t u r e that a moderately high level of self-esteem i s preferable to both very high and very low self-esteem because a middle ground represents a reasonable and r e a l i s t i c amount of s e l f - a p p r a i s a l and s e l f -acceptance (Wells, 1976). Viewed i n t h i s l i g h t , the findings indicate that there i s no adverse association between parenting intentions and self-esteem. An association was found to exist between gender-role identit y and parenting intentions." The association appears to arise, as proposed i n hypothesis ten, from the "ch i l d f r e e " group having a "Masculine" gender-role i d e n t i t y at a higher than expected frequency and a "Feminine" gender-role i d e n t i t y at a lower than expected frequency. The hy-pothesis was also supported i n that the " d e f i n i t e l y yes" group f e l l into the "Feminine" category at a s l i g h t l y higher than expected frequency. Hypothesis ten was not supported because the association between parenting intentions and 133 gender-role i d e n t i t y also appeared to be partly attributable to the " c h i l d f r e e " group f a l l i n g into the "Androgynous" cat-egory at a much lower than expected frequency, while the " d e f i n i t e l y yes" group f e l l into t h i s category at a higher than expected frequency. The re s u l t s of the present study indicate an associa-tion between gender-role i d e n t i t y and parenting intentions p a r t i a l l y explained by the unexpected finding that " d e f i n i t e l y yes" women were androgynous at a higher than ex-pected frequency, while " c h i l d f r e e " women were androgynous at a lower than expected frequency. These findings contrast with the findings of Teicholz (1977) reporting that c h i l d -free women were more l i k e l y to have an androgynous gender-role i d e n t i t y than women who had children, which Teicholz proposed indicated a f l e x i b i l i t y of sex roles, an a b i l i t y to step outside of the s o c i a l l y prescribed role of motherhood. What seems to be r e f l e c t e d in the present results i s that some women who are d e f i n i t e l y intending to parent embrace both feminine and masculine c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . Possibly the cha r a c t e r i s t i c s of the population sample of university stu-dents helps to explain the findings because young women who plan to educate themselves and combine a career and motherhood are l i k e l y to exhibit a f l e x i b i l i t y of sex-roles. The findings of the present researcher, l i k e Cohen (1984), Teicholz (1977) and Gerson (1980), indicate that "ch i l d f r e e " women more frequently have masculine gender-role i d e n t i t i e s than women who intend to parent, who more 134 frequently have feminine gender-role i d e n t i t i e s . Perhaps women who embrace c u l t u r a l l y defined t r a i t s of femininity as part of t h e i r i d e n t i t y more often intend to parent because motherhood i s a r o l e which i s cl o s e l y connected with t r a d i t i o n a l l y expressive feminine c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s such as nurturing, a f f e c t i o n , tenderness and warmth. The findings support Kupinsky's (1977) proposal that the more t r a d i t i o n a l a woman's gender-role orientation, the more l i k e l y she i s to perceive childbearing and rearing as having benefits. As i n the findings of other research studies (Gerson, 1980: Hoffman, 1975; Veevers, 1980, Waite et a l . , 1986) women who do not intend to parent are not characterized as i d e n t i f y i n g themselves with s t e r e o t y p i c a l l y feminine t r a i t s . These women appear to r e j e c t femininity and embrace more i n s t r u -mental c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s associated with a masculine gender-rol e . This d i s t i n c t i o n between the parenting intentions groups supports the proposal that people who do not conform to t r a d i t i o n a l gender ro l e s are more l i k e l y to engage i n non-traditional behavior (Kupinsky, 1977). The " c h i l d f r e e " participants seem to not simply combine masculine and femi-nine t r a i t s , so much as to re j e c t c u l t u r a l l y defined notions of femininity as s e l f - d e s c r i p t i v e . In terms of gender-role identity, " c h i l d f r e e " women are very non-traditional. Perhaps the motherhood mandate i s so powerful that the women who are l i k e l y to intend to forgo parenthood are those who not only embrace masculine t r a i t s but also r e j e c t t r a d i t i o n -a l l y prescribed feminine t r a i t s as part of th e i r i d e n t i t y . 135 In conclusion, parenting intentions appear to be asso-ciated with a combination of p a r t i c u l a r s o c i a l i z a t i o n , s i t u -ation, and i d e n t i t y factors; factors from each of these areas appear to be relevant. Religion i s a s o c i a l i z a t i o n factor associated with parenting intentions, possibly be-cause of p r o n a t a l i s t tenets embedded in r e l i g i o u s doctrines. Career aspirations appear to be associated with parent-ing intentions, not in terms of socioeconomic status, but in view of whether a profession i s male or female dominated. Perhaps these findings can be accounted for by the values which the women embrace. Possibly, as Barnett and MacDonald (1986) propose, c h i l d f r e e women eschew careers which offe r economic returns, prestige, and security, and prefer careers which o f f e r independence and freedom of action. Perhaps the women who d e f i n i t e l y intend to parent value careers which are t r a d i t i o n a l l y feminine. An additional p o s s i b i l i t y i s that women who d e f i n i t e l y intend to have children are engag-ing in a costs-benefits decision-making process, choosing female dominated careers that tend to accommodate children well. Further exploration i s needed to determine the exact nature of the re l a t i o n s h i p between career aspirations and parenting intentions i n young university women. The f i n d -ings suggest that the differences in career choice do not just emerge out of the circumstances imposed by a chosen l i f e s t y l e : apparently parenting intentions are associated with career aspirations at an early stage of adult l i f e . 136 Identity structures appear to be associated with par-enting intentions in terms of gender-role i d e n t i t y , perhaps suggesting that young women who rej e c t motherhood also tend to r e j e c t t r a d i t i o n a l l y feminine c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s as s e l f de-s c r i p t i v e . Young women who intend to parent on the other hand tend to embrace a female gender-role i d e n t i t y , or to adopt masculine t r a i t s as s e l f descriptive without r e j e c t i n g feminine ones. The findings of the present study serve to suggest that young univer s i t y women who intend to have children are more t r a d i t i o n a l i n t h e i r marriage intentions, r e l i g i o u s a f f i l i a -tions, career aspirations, and th e i r gender-role i d e n t i t i e s than those women who intend to forgo parenthood. As society experiences changes i n women's roles, the women who intend to step outside of the t r a d i t i o n a l l y prescribed r o l e of motherhood seem to be less t r a d i t i o n a l i n many ways than young women who intend to parent. Motherhood has always been an expected and f a m i l i a r role for women, and perhaps the women who are most l i k e l y to experiment with an alte r n a t i v e l i f e s t y l e are those who do not conform to t r a d i t i o n . Implications For Counselling Although parenthood may be rewarding i n many cases, counsellors must not automatically assume that having childr e n necessarily maximizes the l i f e opportunities of a l l individuals. 137 The general s o c i a l p o l i c y of professional therapists has been to advocate parenthood to almost a l l patients under almost a l l conditions. A more appropriate s o c i a l p o l i c y would be for marriage counselors and other advi-sors to be sensitized to the p o s s i b i l i t y that for some c l i e n t s , the parenthood experience may be permanently disruptive (Veevers, 1 9 8 0 p. 1 6 9 ) . The r e s u l t s of the present research appear to indicate that women i n counselling should be encouraged to make t h e i r childbearing decisions for reasons pertaining to t h e i r i n t r i n s i c c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s and not so l e l y because parenthood i s a s o c i a l l y prescribed r o l e . Informed reproductive decision-making i s extremely im-portant because parenthood i s an irrevocable decision af-fecting several l i v e s . Women may benefit from having i n f o r -mation and a high degree of self-awareness when assessing t h e i r desire and aptitude for parenthood p r i o r to accepting or r e j e c t i n g t h i s r o l e . With the growing number of appeal-ing and f u l f i l l i n g r o le options becoming available to women there i s a need for women to c a r e f u l l y assess t h e i r options. Women need to select roles which w i l l bring them the great-est degree of s a t i s f a c t i o n and f u l f i l l m e n t (Baruch et a l . , 1 9 8 3 ) . Decisions about parenthood appear to be highly complex and there may be a need for professionals to provide assistance and support (Faux, 1 9 8 4 ; Veevers, 1 9 8 0 ; (Whelan, 1 9 8 0 ) . The present research findings indicate that parenthood preferences are associated with a combination of 138 several s o c i a l i z a t i o n / s i t u a t i o n a l and identity factors. Women making parenting decisions may benefit from knowing how t h e i r s o c i a l i z a t i o n may serve to influence t h e i r l i f e s t y l e choices. They may require factual information about the re l a t i o n s h i p between career and motherhood choices. They may also benefit from knowledge about ide n t i t y factors which may be related to th e i r reproductive intentions. Women contemplating whether or not to have children may need to examine the s o c i a l and c u l t u r a l pressures on them to become mothers (Bombadeiri/ 1981; Faux, 1984; Veevers, 1980; Whelan, 1980). Women i n counselling, in exploring the con-sequences of accepting either choice, may need to assess the impact of s o c i e t a l pressures and sanctions regarding both options. The present research i s consistent with most of the other research findings i n suggesting that r e l i g i o u s a f f i l i a t i o n i s a s o c i a l i z a t i o n factor which s i g n i f i c a n t l y distinguishes between women who do intend to have children and those who do not (Burman & de Anda, 1986; Feldman, 1981; Ory, 1978; Ramu, 1986; Toomey, 1977; Veevers, 1980) . Women need to be aware of the p r o n a t a l i s t tenets within many re l i g i o u s doctrines. Part of the counselling process should include encouraging women to explore and understand any associations between t h e i r r e l i g i o u s a f f i l i a t i o n s and t h e i r parenthood choices. It may be necessary to provide coun-s e l l i n g for women attempting to resolve c o n f l i c t s between th e i r r e l i g i o u s values and t h e i r l i f e s t y l e preferences. 139 Women making reproductive decisions may need to think about the role t h e i r careers w i l l play, as well as the r o l e motherhood w i l l play i n th e i r l i v e s . The findings of the present research indicate that young women's parenting i n -tentions d i f f e r based on whether they aspire to a male or female dominated profession. This finding may suggest that parenthood and career choices include a costs-benefits decision-making process. The finding may also be i n d i c a t i v e of d i f f e r i n g values. The role of the counsellor i n helping women explore t h e i r r o l e options i s to a s s i s t women in care-f u l l y assessing t h e i r options and choosing roles that s u i t t h e i r i n d i v i d u a l needs and desires (Baruch et a l . , 1983; Campbell, 1985; Veevers; 1980). This process w i l l require a s s i s t i n g women to separate t h e i r individual needs and values from s o c i a l l y imposed roles; helping them to gain a clear idea of t h e i r own perceived personal costs and bene-f i t s regarding t h e i r parenting choices and th e i r career choices. Women should be encouraged to consider the r e a l i s t i c l i m i t a t i o n s imposed when attempting to combine career and motherhood r o l e s . The present research findings indicate that young women with d i f f e r i n g parenting intentions may be distinguished based on t h e i r gender-role i d e n t i t i e s . Women who intend to remain c h i l d f r e e tend to have masculine gender-role i d e n t i -t i e s , and women who d e f i n i t e l y intend to parent tend to have feminine or androgynous gender-role i d e n t i t i e s . These f i n d -ings present the p o s s i b i l i t y of counselling situations where 140 women who embrace t r a d i t i o n a l l y feminine c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s as se l f - d e s c r i p t i v e may f e e l a sense of c o n f l i c t i f they r e j e c t parenthood. Conversely, women who choose parenthood yet embrace t r a d i t i o n a l l y male c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s may experience a sense of c o n f l i c t . The present research seems to indicate that an exploration of gender-role identi t y has a place in understanding and seeking resolutions to reproductive decision-making. The present research findings appear to suggest that women who intend to remain c h i l d f r e e may be described as generally less t r a d i t i o n a l i n t h e i r marriage and career plans, t h e i r r e l i g i o u s a f f i l i a t i o n s , and th e i r gender-role i d e n t i t i e s than women who intend to parent. This information should not imply a prescription of parenthood for t r a d i t i o n a l women and childlessness for non-traditional women. The implication for counselling that these findings suggest i s that women considering reproductive options may want to examine the tr a d i t i o n a l i s m of th e i r values and explore any potential c o n f l i c t s between t h e i r t r a d i t i o n a l and non-traditional values. The information generated by the present research i s not r e s t r i c t e d to counselling women who are making parent-hood decisions. Women may need assistance i d e n t i f y i n g and resolving c o n f l i c t s a f t e r t h e i r parenting choice has been made. They may benefit from information and support regard-ing associations between the reproductive decisions they have made and s i g n i f i c a n t s o c i a l i z a t i o n , s i t u a t i o n a l , and 141 i d e n t i t y factors (Faux, 1984; Movius, 1976; Housekencht, 1978; Veevers, 1980). For example, c h i l d f r e e women may benefit from information regarding pronatalist tenets that may be a source of c o n f l i c t between t h e i r r e l i g i o u s values and t h e i r reproductive choice. Women who have chosen parenthood may benefit from counselling i f they begin to experience c o n f l i c t between t h e i r career choice and motherhood. Counsellors can provide information and support to women (and t h e i r partners) both before and after t h e i r reproductive decisions have been made. The findings of the present research by no means offer a simple solution to the problems surrounding reproductive choices. Rather information i s offered with which to begin developing and structuring e f f e c t i v e counselling strategies. Knowledge about the normative, s i t u a t i o n a l , and personal c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s associated with preferences for one parent-ing r o l e or another may be useful in a s s i s t i n g individuals who are experiencing d i f f i c u l t y . Although the information gathered from research on parenting intentions i s not yet s u f f i c i e n t to provide knowledge about whether a woman w i l l be guaranteed s a t i s f a c t i o n with a p a r t i c u l a r role, i t can be used to structure guidance programs and perhaps help to focus on the s a l i e n t issues i n reproductive decision-making. Limitations of the Study Voluntary childlessness i s r e l a t i v e l y infrequent i n the population, r e s t r i c t i n g the number of subjects available for study. This f a c t imposed certa i n l i m i t a t i o n s on the present 142 study by making i t necessary to combine women who d e f i n i t e l y did not intend to have children (N = 10) with women who probably did not intend to have children (N = 24). This procedure provided a large enough sample size to conduct meaningful s t a t i s t i c a l analysis, but i t may have obscured differences between women who were more and less certain of th e i r intention not to have children. This procedure i s supported by information regarding the nature of voluntary childlessness. According to Veevers (1980) three-quarters of women who choose t h i s s o c i a l l y deviant role do so through a series of postponements. This fact presents the p o s s i b i l i t y that women who a r t i c u l a t e early on that they probably w i l l not have children are l i k e l y to continue to postpone motherhood i n d e f i n i t e l y . Another l i m i t a t i o n of the study i s that parenting intentions are not e n t i r e l y predictive of eventual reproductive behavior. Factors which are associated to parenting intentions may be d i f f e r e n t from factors which are associated to s a t i s f a c t i o n with a chosen parenting r o l e . Despite t h i s l i m i t a t i o n , i t i s useful to undertake research of t h i s nature i n order to f i n d out which o r i g i n a l , a p r i o r i factors are associated with parenting preferences, as d i s t i n c t from factors which may distinguish women simply as a r e s u l t of l i v i n g with a chosen r o l e . The homogeneity of the population sample i s a li m i t a t i o n of the study. Factors that may serve to dist i n g u i s h women based on t h e i r parenting intentions i n a 143 more heterogeneous sample may possibly have been obscured because the subjects in the present study were a select group. University women are by d e f i n i t i o n highly educated, and on the whole aspire to occupations with high socioeconomic status and prestige. In addition, the subject's families of o r i g i n tended to be quite small. Despite the fact that the c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the sample r e s t r i c t the g e n e r a l i z a b i l i t y of the re s u l t s , research which focuses on the parenting intentions of university women i s important. Female university students have a broad array of career options open to them and, as they experience upward movement towards career goals, they are a segment of the population l i k e l y to be confronted with the issues surrounding contemporary parenthood planning (Gerson, 1980) . Implications for Further Research The study of parenting intentions provides a potential source of hypotheses about the reasons why people become parents or not, and the ef f e c t s t h e i r chosen roles may have on t h e i r l i f e adjustments. Such knowledge may provide clues for future s o c i a l change e f f o r t s where the emphasis i s on increasing awareness of alt e r n a t i v e roles and tolerance for individual differences (Houseknecht, 1978). Further research i s needed to gain a more precise un-derstanding of how parenting intentions are associated with marital, r e l i g i o u s , career, and gender-role i d e n t i t y fac-tors. An adjunct to the present body of quantitative data may be to conduct q u a l i t a t i v e research involving i n depth 144 interviews which focus on the factors s i g n i f i c a n t l y associ-ated with parenting intentions. Women may be encouraged to examine and explain why they do or do not wish to marry. Interviews may be conducted to determine the role of r e l i -gion in reproductive intentions, such as whether women who intend to parent are more l i k e l y to endorse pronatalist tenets of r e l i g i o u s doctrines than women who eschew parent-hood. An attempt may be made to further understand the re-lationship between career aspirations and parenting inten-tions. Women entering into male or female dominated careers may be asked what s p e c i f i c c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of th e i r chosen profession appeal to them and whether they are aware of any connections between t h e i r career choice and thei r parenting intentions. Further research i s needed to more f u l l y under-stand the r e l a t i o n s h i p between gender-role i d e n t i t y and par-enting intentions. This knowledge may contribute to deter-mining how the parenthood r o l e may support or c o n f l i c t with t r a d i t i o n a l l y masculine or feminine t r a i t s which individuals embrace as s e l f d e s c r i p t i v e . Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are needed to enhance s o c i a l s c i e n t i s t s ' understanding of par-enting intentions. Cross-sectional studies w i l l e l i c i t more information about reproductive intentions across a wider range of the s o c i a l spectrum. Differences which may be ob-scured by homogeneity of such factors as age, family of o r i -gin, s o c i a l status, and education may be i d e n t i f i e d through u t i l i z i n g a more heterogeneous sample. Longitudinal studies 145 are needed to gain information about the rel a t i o n s h i p be-tween parenting intentions and reproductive behavior. More importantly, longitudinal studies are needed to determine the l i f e s a t i s f a c t i o n of women who have chosen to have c h i l -dren or not, and which s o c i a l i z a t i o n , s i t u a t i o n a l , and iden-t i t y factors are more often associated with women's sa t i s f a c t i o n with t h e i r reproductive choices. The present study, and other similar studies, may serve to provide the groundwork for research on the development of a "reproductive decision-making t e s t " for helping people make parenthood choices. Research of thi s nature may serve to i d e n t i f y p o t e n t i a l sources of c o n f l i c t or compatibility between parenthood choices and other personal characteris-t i c s . 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APPENDIX A LARGE AND SMALL SAMPLE CHARACTERISTICS Large Sample Small Sample N=381 N=102 Age Mean 20 .5 Mean 20 .7 Marriage Yes 87 .9% Yes 77 .8% Intentions No 2 .5% No 5 .1% Unsure 9 .6% Unsure 17 . 1% Parenting Mean 27 .5 Mean 28 .0 Age Range 20--40 Range 24--40 Number of Mean 2 .4 Mean 2 .2 Children Range 1-! 5 Range 1-! 5 Know Childfree Yes 27 .2% Yes 33 .7% Woman No 72 .8% No 66 .3% Education 3yrs .5% 3yrs 0 .0% B.A. 37 .0% B.A. 35 .3% M.A. 33 .9% M.A. 36 .3% Ph.D. 7 .3% Ph.D. 7 .8% Professional Prof. Degree 19 .4% Degree 19 .6% Other 1 .8% Other 1 .0% Occupation Mean 65 .7 Mean 67 .8 (TSEI2) Range 41 -89 Range 41 -89 Occupation Male 56 .2% Male 65 .7% by Sex Female 43 .8% Female 34 .3% Religion Catholic 23 .2% Cath. 21 .6% Jewish 0 .3% Jewish 0 .0% Protestant 25 .3% Prot. 22 .5% None 36 .9% None 40 .2% Other 14 .2% Other 15 .7% R e l i g i o s i t y Very 8 .4% Very 7 .9% Somewhat 43 .4% Some 38 .6% Not at a l l 48 .2% Not 53 .5% Eth n i c i t y Majority 87 .7% Major. 85 .3% Minority 12 .3% Minor. 14 .7% Bi r t h Order F i r s t 43 .8% F i r s t 39 .2% Middle 14 .7% Middle 21 .6% Youngest 37 .3% Young. 36 .3% Only 4 .2% Only 2 .9% Siblings Mean 1 .8% Mean 1 .8% 155 APPENDIX B PERSONAL DATA SHEET Please c i r c l e (or write in) the most appropriate choice for you at t h i s point i n your l i f e : 1. What i s your present age? * 2. What i s your marital status? ( c i r c l e one?) Single and unattached 1 Single but involved with someone .2 In a steady r e l a t i o n s h i p or engaged 3 Married 4* Separated or divorced 5 -If you are presently single, do you intend to marry i n the future? ( c i r c l e one): yes no unsure 3. Are you already a parent? ( c i r c l e one): yes* no (*Note: If you are not 18-26, i f you are married, or i f you are already a parent, you are NOT e l i g i b l e for t h i s study and do not need to complete t h i s questionnaire.) 4. How much thought have you given to how many children you want? ( c i r c l e one) 1 2 3 4 5 almost very some very a great none l i t t l e thought much deal 5. C i r c l e the number that most clos e l y corresponds with your parenthood intentions: I d e f i n i t e l y do not want children in the future 1 I probably do not want to have children 2 I am unsure i f I want children or not 3 I probably do want to have children 4 I d e f i n i t e l y do want to have children 5 6. How eagerly do you anticipate having children on a scale from 1 (not at a l l ) to 5 (more than anything)? 1 2 3 4 5 not at a l l more than anything 156 7. If you do intend to have children, at what age would you l i k e to have your f i r s t child? . How many children would you l i k e to have? . 8. If you do not intend to have children, i s i n f e r t i l i t y a factor a f f e c t i n g your decision? ( c i r c l e one) yes no 9. Do you personally know any vo l u n t a r i l y c h i l d f r e e women who are no longer capable of bearing a child? yes no 10. What i s the highest l e v e l of education you plan to attain? ( c i r c l e one) High school diploma 1 Two years of univer s i t y 2 Bachelor's degree 3 Master's degree 4 Doctorate 5 Professional degree (MD, DDS, etc) 6 Other (specify) .... 7 11. Please c i r c l e the category that best describes your occupational aspirations: Accountant 01 Architect 02 Computer s p e c i a l i s t 03 Engineer 04 Lawyer 05 Libra r i a n 06 L i f e and physical s c i e n t i s t 07 Manager, administrator 08 Physician, dentist 09 Registered nurse, d i e t i c i a n 10 Sales worker 11 Social s c i e n t i s t 12 Teacher; college and university 13 Teacher; except college or university.14 157 Writer, a r t i s t , entertainer 15 Other (specify) .16 12. What i s your r e l i g i o n , i f any? ( c i r c l e one) Catholic 1 Jewish 2 Protestant 3 None 4 Other (specify) 5 other 13. How r e l i g i o u s do you consider yourself to be? Very r e l i g i o u s 1 Somewhat r e l i g i o u s 2 Not at a l l r e l i g i o u s . . . . 3 14. What i s the predominant ethnic/cultural background of your ancestors? (If more than one applies, choose the one with which you most identify.) Chinese 1 Eastern European 2 East Indian 3 F i l i p i n o , 4 Japanese 5 Northern European 6 Southern European 7 Vietnamese 8 Other (specify) 9 15. In your family, what i s your b i r t h order? 1. eldest 2. middle 3. youngest 4. only c h i l d 16. How many brothers and s i s t e r s do you have?. . Thankyou very much for f i l l i n g out t h i s questionnaire! Now please f i l l out the two personal p r o f i l e measures. 158 APPENDIX C OCCUPATIONAL ASPIRATIONS: TSEI2 SCORES, MALE OR FEMALE DOMINATED AND FREQUENCY COUNTS FOR PARENTING INTENTIONS GROUPS Occupation T i t l e TSEI2 Score Male/Female** Accountant 64.68 M CF 1 PY 0 DY* 0 Architect 80.11 M 0 1 0 Computer s p e c i a l i s t 70.45 M 1 0 0 Engineer 78.91 M 1 2 1 Lawyer 88.42 M 5 6 2 Lib r a r i a n 65.46 F 0 0 0 L i f e and physical s c i e n t i s t 78.71 M 4 1 1 Manager, administrator 50.12 M 3 2 7 Physician, dentist 88.97 M 3 2 2 Registered nurse, d i e t i c i a n 44.89 F 2 2 2 Sales worker 41.13 M 1 0 0 Social s c i e n t i s t 79.48 F 2 1 2 Teacher (college and university) 82.30 M 2 3 . 1 Teacher 52.82 (except college and university) F 1 2 9 Writer, a r t i s t , entertainer 54.39 M 5 1 1 * CF="childfree": D e f i n i t e l y Probably no no children N = children N : = 10 = 24 PY="probably yes" N = 34 DY="definitely yes" N = 34 Determined from 1980 Canadian Census data. 159 APPENDIX D ROSENBERG SELF-ESTEEM INVENTORY Answer the following questions by c i r c l i n g the number which best represents how you f e e l . Strongly disagree 1 Disagree 2 Agree 3 Strongly agree 4 1. On the whole, I am s a t i s f i e d with myself....1 2 3 4 2. At times I think. I am no good at a l l 1 2 3 4 3. I-fe e l that I have a number of good q u a l i t i e s 1 2 3 4 4. I am able to do things as well as most people 1 2 3 4 5. I f e e l I do not have much to be proud o f . . . . l 2 3 4 6. I c e r t a i n l y f e e l useless at times 1 2 3 4 7. I f e e l that I am a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others 1 2 3 4 8. I wish I could have more respect for myself 1 2 3 4 9. A l l i n a l l , I am i n c l i n e d to f e e l that I am a f a i l u r e 1 2 3 4 10. I take a p o s i t i v e attitude toward myself.. 1 2 3 4 160 APPENDIX E INTRODUCTION LETTER Hello, my name i s Kim Burton, and I am a Counselling Psychology Masters student at UBC. I am conducting a study on the parenting intentions of young women today. I am c o l l e c t i n g information about recent trends i n f e r t i l i t y decision-making and attempting to i d e n t i f y factors associated with women's parenthood intentions. Your p a r t i c i p a t i o n can contribute to an understanding of the parenting issues women today are facing. The factors I am exploring are: b i r t h order and family s i 2 e , r e l i g i o n and et h n i c i t y , educational and occupational aspirations, as well as self-esteem and gender ide n t i t y . To be e l i g i b l e for p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n t h i s study you must be eighteen to twenty-six years old, unmarried, and attending university. I w i l l be happy to inform you of the results of t h i s survey. Instructions The survey w i l l take you approximately 15 minutes to complete. To ensure c o n f i d e n t i a l i t y , the forms w i l l be coded with a s e r i a l number, and the consent form w i l l be removed and kept separately from the other forms. DO NOT PUT YOUR NAME ON THE FORMS. Answer a l l the questions as best you can. WHEN YOU ARE DONE, DROP OFF THE SURVEY AT THE FRONT DESK OF YOUR RESIDENCE AREA IN THE LOCKED BOX PROVIDED. Yours t r u l y , Kim Burton 162 APPENDIX G: REMINDER NOTICE This i s a note to remind students who are interested i n pa r t i c i p a t i n g in the study on parenting intentions to f i l l out and return the survey forms you received. If you have already returned your completed survey to the box at the residence desk please disregard t h i s notice. If you are not planning to p a r t i c i p a t e i n t h i s study please return the blank survey to the residence desk. thankyou Kim Burton 163 APPENDIX H MANOVA AND UNIVARIATE F TESTS COMPARING EQUAL N RANDOM SAMPLE WITH ENTIRE SAMPLE Multivariate Tests of Significance (S = 1 , M = 1 1/2, N = 236 1/2) Test Name Value Exact F Hypoth. DF Error DF Siq. of F P i l l a i s .00581 .55525 5.00 475.00 .734 Hotellings .00584 .55525 5.00 475.00 .734 Wilks .99419 .55525 5.00 475.00 .734 Note.. F s t a t i s t i c s are exact. EFFECT .. GROUP (CONT.) Univariate F-tests with (1,479) D. F. Variable Hypoth. MS Error MS F Sig. of F. EDUCATION .01087 1.37715 .00789 .929 OCCUPATION 396 .49600 251.99181 1.57345 .210 RELIGIOSITY .26913 .40928 .65758 .418 SIBLINGS .00060 1.50317 .00040 .984 SELFESTEEM 17 .51174 27.35174 .64024 .424 164 APPENDIX I VARIABLE MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS Variable .. EDUCATION Group Mean Std. Dev N 95 percent Conf. Interval CHILDFREE 3.706 .462 34 3.545 3 .867 PROB.YES 3.697 .467 33 3.531 3 .862 DEF. YES 3.529 .507 34 3.353 3 .706 TOTAL 3.644 .481 101 3.549 3 .739 Variable .. OCCUPATION LEVEL (TSEI2) Group Mean Std. Dev. N 95 percent Conf .Interval CH.FREE 68.935 16.349 34 63.231 74 .640 PROB.YES 71.945 15.333 33 66.508 77.382 DEF.YES 63.158 15.294 34 57.822 68.495 TOTAL 67.974 15.938 101 64.827 71.120 Variable .. RELIGIOSITY Group Mean Std. Dev. N 95 percent Conf . Interval CH.FREE 2.706 .462 34 2.545 2.867 PROB.YES 2.333 .645 33 2.104 2.562 DEF.YES 2.324 .727 34 2.070 2.577 TOTAL 2.455 .641 101 2.329 2.582 165 Variable .. SIBLING NUMBER Group Mean Std. Dev. N 95 percent Conf.Interv, CH.FREE 1.647 .812 34 1.364 1.930 PRO.YES 2.212 1.474 33 1.690 2.735 DEF.YES 1.647 .950 34 1.316 1.978 TOTAL 1.832 1.132 101 1.608 2.055 Variable .. SELF-ESTEEM Group Mean Std. Dev. N 95 percent Conf. Interval CH.FREE 29 .588 7.386 34 27.011 32.165 PRO.YES 32 .273 4.543 33 30.662 33.884 DEF.YES 32 .912 6.093 34 30.952 34 .871 TOTAL 31 .584 6.093 101 30.381 32.787