Family & Children

FAMILY SIZE
 What is family size?
• Family size can be defined in various ways.It may be defined such that all
individuals within a household are included.
• This may included parents and children,but it may also include members of
the extended family (e.g. aunts,uncles,grandparents) and sometimes people
who are not related by gens.
 Factors Related To Family Size (1)
• Family size is related to socioeconomic status,families in the lower brackets
often have larger families.Associated with socioeconomic status,and therefore
also inversely related to family size,are material and education
resources.Simply out,there are usually fewer resources in larger
families.Larger families are more authoritation and less permissive and
democratic.
• This is turn means that children have fewer opportunities to practice making
decisions,and they may grow up thinking that their perspective is relatively
unimportant.
 Factors Related To Family Size (2)
• Family size determines what experiences and resources a child will have and receive, and those
in turn influence development. They are strong influences because the experiences determined
by family size are repetitious. The effects on cognition and personality are for this reason said to
be overdetermined.

• Family size is in some ways a nonshared family influence. It is nonshared in the sense that the
different siblings do not share the same family size. A first born, for example, is the only child
for a period of time, at which point he or she is in a small family, but only until the next sibling
is born. That second born child is never an only child but always has at least one sibling. In that
fashion, the siblings do not share certain kinds of experiences. The same thing can be said
about each birth-order position and family size.
• Age

• Female age is the most important factor affecting fertility.Older women are less likely to get
pregnant ， and if they do get pregnant, they are more likely to have a miscarriage.Male fertility may also
decrease with age although to a much lesser degree.So,the age of the couple or parents will affect the family
size.

• Divorce rates have increased

• The increase in divorce has led to more reconstituted families, singlehood and single parenthood, therefore
the family size has generally decreased apart from in cases where reconstituted families have been formed.

• Education

• Women who attained secondary and higher level of education were found more likely to prefer small family
size compared to the women who had no education.Women who had good knowledge of fertility awareness
method of contraception were found more likely to prefer small family size compared to women who had
poor knowledge of fertility awareness method of contraception.
CHARTS OF FAMILY SIZE